India optimistic on US defense talks despite Russia tension

Bloomberg

India is optimistic about talks next week with the US on military cooperation even as the Biden administration becomes more vocal in rebuking New Delhi over its reluctance to criticise Russia’s war in Ukraine, people familiar with the matter said.
Recent public statements from Washington warning India about consequences for purchases of weapons and discounted oil from Russia are contrary to private discussions between the two sides, the people said, asking for anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the talks. They cited conversations in New Delhi last month with US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, who offered help in finding alternative sources of weapons that could be used to counter neighbors Pakistan and China.
India informed Nuland that the alternatives to Russian weapons were too expensive, according to people familiar with the matter.
In addition, Russian companies are more willing to set up joint ventures with Indian companies that include some technology transfer, something US defense firms are reluctant to do, they said.
Foreign and defense ministers of the US and India are expected to meet in Washington next week for the first two-plus-two dialog since Joe Biden took office, the people said.
Apart from defense cooperation, they said, Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine and the ensuing sanctions will also
be discussed.
Tensions between the US and India have risen in recent weeks over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reluctance to criticise Putin, which has complicated a budding security partnership between the democracies in countering China’s influence.
In some of the sharpest language so far, Biden’s top economic adviser, Brian Deese, said the US has told India that the consequences of a “more explicit strategic alignment” with Moscow would be “significant and long-term.”
“There are certainly areas where we have been disappointed by both China and India’s decisions, in the context of the invasion,” Deese, the director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters. India’s Foreign
Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar again underlined the importance of New Delhi’s ties with Moscow.
Russia is an “important partner in a variety of areas,” the minister told parliament. “Like all other countries, we too are assessing the implications” of Russia’s war in Ukraine and “deciding what is best for our national interest.”