Amid the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, the United States on Wednesday said that its QUAD partner India is undoubtedly committed to rules-based international order. This statement comes on the back of America’s push to shore-up diplomatic support from allies and friendly countries, including India, to preclude a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“We know that our Indian partners are committed to that rules-based international order. There are any number of tenets to that order. One of them is that borders cannot be redrawn by force, that large countries cannot bully small countries; that only the people of a particular country can be in a position to choose their foreign policy, their partnerships, their alliances, their associations. Those are principles that apply equally in the Indo-Pacific as they do in Europe,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a press brief. The reference to "bullying" by larger nations assumes significance in context of China's recent military adventures with India at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.
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The US also said that the Ukrainian crisis was brought up during the recent QUAD foreign ministers meeting in Australia and that all four countries support a peaceful, diplomatic solution to the crisis. “… there was a discussion of Russia and Ukraine in the context of the Quad meeting that we had with our Indian counterparts, our Japanese and Australian allies. There was a strong consensus in that meeting that there needs to be a diplomatic – a peaceful resolution to this,” he said further.
The US had recently declared India as the “driving force” of the QUAD. “We recognise that India is a like-minded partner and leader in South Asia and the Indian Ocean, active in and connected to the Southeast Asia, a driving force of the Quad, and an engine for regional growth and development,” White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had said.
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The US secretary of state on Wednesday condemned Russian Parliament’s proposal to recognise Ukraine’s separatist republics as independent nations. This move will “constitute a gross violation of international law” and “Kremlin approval of this appeal would amount to the Russian government’s wholesale rejection of its commitments under the Minsk agreements,” Blinken said.
