washington, A senior US State Department official has told US lawmakers that the US was disappointed by the symbolism and timing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Russia when US President Joe Biden was hosting a NATO summit in Washington.
Prime Minister Modi paid an official visit to Russia on July 8-9 at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin for the 22nd India-Russia Annual Summit. This was Modi's first visit to Russia since the start of the conflict in Ukraine. India has yet to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has called for a resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.
“I fully agree with our disappointment about the symbolism and timing of Prime Minister Modi's visit to Moscow,” US Deputy Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lowe told lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday.
We are in intensive discussions with our Indian friends about it. In this context I would like to say that Prime Minister Modi also met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during the Y7 Summit in Italy two weeks before he went to Moscow.
America watched very carefully what Modi did when he was in Moscow. No major defense deals were struck. No technology cooperation was discussed.
Also, Modi said in front of Putin on live television that the war in Ukraine cannot be won on the battlefield and it is painful to see children die in war. Lu was responding to a question from former India Caucus co-chairman Joe Wilson on the issue.
Wilson said “I have great respect and admiration for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but I was shocked and saddened to see him in Moscow that day hugging the war criminal Putin. That day Putin deliberately fired a missile at the largest children's hospital in Kiev, Ukraine.SS1MS
