India must play a constructive role in ensuring peace in Ukraine: US official

Washington: India, as a critical security provider globally, must play a constructive role in ensuring peace in Ukraine and providing it with the impetus to be able to negotiate with Russia, a senior US official has said.

Liam Wasley, Director of the Office of European Security and Political Affairs at the US State Department said this, days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s high-profile visit to Moscow and his meeting with President Vladimir Putin, including on the Ukraine conflict.

Wasley said Indians should understand how much of a threat President Putin and his country are to America's European allies and the NATO alliance.

It has also been a very jarring direct threat to the security of a billion members of democracies, Wasley told PTI in an interview.

“I think that the Indian people can recognise how that is impacting the understanding and the approach of our NATO allies. It's really important for India to be playing a constructive role in ensuring a just peace for Ukraine and providing the impetus for Ukraine to be able to negotiate to ensure its own future,” he said.

Leaders of the 32-member NATO alliance gathered in Washington DC this week for the 75th anniversary summit meeting where Russia's war in Ukraine and China has been the two major topics of discussion.

He mentioned NATO's strong statement in Washington on Wednesday on China's role in enabling the Russian war machine and continuing the war in Ukraine.

Russia would not be able to continue its onslaught on the Ukrainian people if it were not for the technology and the support that they are getting from China, Iran, and North Korea.

When asked if the Indian prime minister was insensitive to the security concerns of Europe and NATO allies, Wasley said: “We think it's important for Indians to understand how those forces are contributing to extending and continuing an unjust, unprovoked war for several years." Referring to the meeting between US President Joe Biden along with NATO allies and with the heads of state of Indo-Pacific partners, Wasley said part of this is because many aspects of security are now global.

“The declaration yesterday focused on undersea warfare, focused on cyberspace, focused on war in space. These are conversations that we're having with our Indo-Pacific partners. Those were conversations that I can see are a future role for India because their security, our security, all of our security is interconnected,” he said, adding that there is room for this conversation to grow.

Describing NATO as a defensive alliance, he said it relies on the interest of other partners to want to be engaged.

“I think that that is a decision for India to take, whether it wants a deeper relationship with NATO or with individual NATO partners,” he said.

Responding to a question, he said India has not chosen to be a partner of NATO. “India is a critical security provider and projector in a very large part of the world. We think India has enormous influence and an enormous voice and will have a great impact on how the future of the international security environment develops. This is why I think India can play a constructive role in bringing peace to Ukraine,” he said.

“This is why I think India has a key role in the conversation as we deal with the global security threats that we are all grappling with,” he added.

Wasley said the NATO alliance has shown that it is united in support of Ukraine and providing Ukraine with the support, the political support, the material support it needs to defend its own people, defend its own territory, and forge a just and lasting peace.

“It's up to India to figure out how it can best contribute to that role,” he said.

The reference to China in the Washington declaration, he said, captures the mood of the alliance.

“It captures the tone of the conversations that we've been having as allies for the past two years. China has stepped up its role in supporting Putin and in his no-limits partnership. So, I think it's a recognition that China has decided that it is seeking to influence this conflict by enabling Putin,” Wasley said.