Biden, Modi to meet virtually Monday over Ukraine

WASHINGTON - US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a virtual summit Monday, clouded by US frustration over New Delhi's neutral stance on Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The South Asian nation has tried to walk a tightrope between maintaining relations with the West and avoiding alienating Russia, and has not imposed sanctions over the conflict.

New Delhi has raised concerns in Washington in particular by continuing to buy Russian oil and gas, despite pressure from Biden for world leaders to take a hard line against Moscow.

"President Biden will continue our close consultations on the consequences of Russia's brutal war against Ukraine and mitigating its destabilizing impact on global food supply and commodity markets," Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement on Sunday.

The call will take place at 11:00am (1500 GMT), the White House said.

The state-run Indian Oil Corp. has bought at least three million barrels of crude from Russia since the start of the invasion on February 24, in defiance of an embargo by Western nations.

Biden and Modi failed to reach a joint condemnation of the Russian invasion when they last spoke in early March at a meeting of the so-called "Quad" alliance of the United States, India, Australia and Japan.

And India abstained when the UN General Assembly voted last week to suspend Russia from its seat on the 47-member Human Rights Council over allegations that Russian soldiers in Ukraine engaged in war crimes.

''Shaky'' response

The United States has already warned that any country that actively helps Russia to circumvent international sanctions will suffer "consequences."

Yet this has not deterred India from working with Russia on a rupee-ruble payment mechanism to enable existing trade obligations in the wake of sanctions imposed on the Kremlin.

Biden said on March 21 that India was an exception among Washington's allies with its "shaky" response to the Russian offensive.

In the Cold War, officially non-aligned India leaned towards the Soviet Union -- in part due to US support for arch-rival Pakistan -- buying its first Russian MiG-21 fighter jets in 1962.

According to experts, Russia remains India's biggest supplier of major arms and India is also Russia's largest customer.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who met with Modi in New Delhi in early April, lauded India for its approach to the conflict, and in particular for judging "the situation in its entirety, not just in a one-sided way."

Biden and Modi are also expected to talk about ending the Covid-19 pandemic, countering climate change, and bolstering security and democracy in the Asia-Pacific region, where India is seen as a critical counterweight to growing Chinese power.

The last confrontation between the Chinese and Indian militaries on the Line of Control, on the border of Tibet and the Indian region of Ladakh, flared up as recently as June 2020.

And on Thursday, India claimed to have thwarted a cyberattack launched by Chinese hackers against its power grid.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will also hold a "U.S.-India 2+2 Ministerial" meeting Monday with Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Minister of Defense Rajnath Singh. - AFP