U.S. playing a ‘long game’ in relationship with India: Jake Sullivan

Washington not forcing New Delhi’s hand on Russian sanctions, says National Security Adviser

Washington DC:

The U.S. is playing a “long game” in the context of its relationship with India and not trying to coerce India into joining its sanctions against Moscow, U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has said.

Mr. Sullivan’s remarks were made on Thursday at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington DC-based think tank. He was responding to a question on whether India’s abstentions during the United Nations votes that were critical of Russia and New Delhi’s non-participation in the U.S. sanctions on Russian energy were hindering the bilateral relationship or were simply a difference of opinion that could be easily managed.

The U.S., as per Mr Sullivan, was being “direct” with India about its perspective on the Russia situation and how it “would encourage” India, in time, to change its own perspective, adding that it was up to India to make its own decisions.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Russian entities following the county’s invasion of Ukraine in February. India has not signed up to these sanctions nor voted along with the vast majority of countries at the UN, in votes that censured Russia.

“But they’re a sovereign, democratic nation, they will make their own decisions and we’re not here to lecture them or to insist on a certain outcome or else,” Mr. Sullivan said about India.

“We’re having, I would say, a deep, respectful, and strategic dialogue with India, starting with the President and the Prime Minister, who have spoken frequently by phone and just met a couple of weeks ago in Tokyo, and we’re playing the long game here,” he added.