US diplomat Donald Lu said the Biden administration is trying to urge India to take a clear stand on the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Mr Lu noted that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has been on the “front line of that battle” and that US President Joe Biden and other senior State Department officials have been conducting various “very serious” high-level talks with their Indian counterparts. are. on Ukraine.
US Diplomat: US lawmakers criticized India for abstaining from a UN vote rebuking Russia’s invasion on Wednesday.
“India has focused on two things when trying to explain its position, one that it continues to want to leave on the table the possibility of a diplomatic resolution of this conflict. The second thing that they emphasize is India has 18,000 students still in Ukraine, and they are trying to work with both the Governments of Ukraine and Russia to safeguard those,” the top US diplomat stated.
US lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, criticized India during a hearing on the “US relationship with India” on Wednesday for abstaining from a UN vote to condemn Russia’s invasion.
Responding to criticism made by the lawmakers of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr Lu said, “Let me say that all of us have been working to urge India to take a clear position, a position opposed to Russia’s actions.”
“The State Department continues to engage India closely to underscore the importance of a collective response and condemning Russia’s invasion,” he added.
“So we’re making small steps and assure you we are on this and working every day to make sure that we are trying to close the gap between where we are and where our Indian partners are,” Lu, the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia informed the Senate Foreign Relations subpanel.
India has not taken a “clear” position, but the US sees “an evolution” in some of its public positions.
“So you may have seen yesterday, the Indian government said it would send an airlift of humanitarian supplies from India to Ukraine. That’s important. That’s a request that’s coming from Ukraine’s leadership. Second, it said in a UN session that it called for all states to abide by the UN Charter to respect the sovereignty and territory, the territorial integrity of other states. That wasn’t criticism of Russia, but a very clear reference to Russia’s violation of the UN Charter and violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty,” Lu explained.
At the UN General Assembly, the vote results displayed on screens showed that 141 nations voted in favor of the resolution condemning Russian invasion of Ukraine and five nations opposed it, with 35 countries abstaining.
Refuting allegations that Moscow attacks civilian infrastructures, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vassily Nebenzia said that Moscow does not conduct attacks on civilians or civilian facilities.
