NEW DELHI: India’s role as G20 president and a voice for developing countries facing the economic fallout of the Ukraine crisis makes it an important player in efforts to find a solution to the conflict, the US ambassador to Kyiv Bridget Brink said on Wednesday.
India’s leadership is important in efforts to extend the Black Sea Grain Initiative, an agreement brokered by Turkey and the UN last year for supplying grains and fertilisers from Ukraine to markets around the world, Brink told a small group of Indian reporters during an online briefing ahead of 500 days of the war in Ukraine.
Soon after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the US pressed India to take a firmer line on the conflict and to reduce the purchase of discounted Russian oil. The Indian side has not publicly criticised Russia’s actions so far or voted along with Western partners on resolutions at UN bodies denouncing the invasion.
Also Read: Charting the evolving India-US relationship
{{/usCountry}}Also Read: Charting the evolving India-US relationship
{{/usCountry}}Brink positioned India’s role in the crisis in the context of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s successful state visit to the US and President Joe Biden’s description of the US-India partnership as among the most consequential in the world. “As this year’s president of the G20, your country’s leadership is critical to shaping global events, including in places like Ukraine, which may feel far away but have ramifications worldwide,” she said.
Pointing to India’s work to support developing countries through its G20 presidency, she added: “This war has wide-ranging implications for the global economy, for food security and for the basic principles outlined in the UN Charter on sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Brink declined to go into specifics when she was asked what role the US expects India to play and said: “I understand that we and India share a common purpose in terms of respect for the territorial integrity of states and respect for the UN Charter. And to me, this is the foundation of [Ukraine] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy’s peace formula and I know that is something that is important to India. It is something that is also vitally important to the US...”.
Zelenskyy’s 10-point peace plan, which he outlined at last year’s G20 Summit in Indonesia, can be the starting point for countries to rally around Ukraine, she said. The US and its partners such as India can also work together to address global challenges created by the war, such as food security and the “disruptions that Russia has made to the world energy market”, she added.
With Russia threatening to withdraw from the Black Sea Grain Initiative after July 18, Brink noted that the agreement had helped stabilise global markets by facilitating the export of more than 32 million tonnes of grain since last August. “This is one of many areas where India’s leadership could be so important. India’s leaders have a unique voice to stand up for developing countries and encourage the continuation and expansion of the Black Sea Grain Initiative...,” she said.
Brink said the US and India, as “proud democracies”, also have the common aim of supporting freedom and the territorial integrity of states. “While Russia’s war against Ukraine may feel far away, it has implications worldwide for countries, obligations to respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” she said.
Without referring to China, Brink said: “I know the people of India understand the importance of freedom of sovereignty and territorial integrity, and India’s leaders have spoken about these bedrock principles. The threat posed by a neighbouring country, with rising ambitions and no respect for territorial integrity is not only felt by Ukraine.”
Brink referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting last September - “today’s era is not of war” - and the theme of “One earth, one family, one future” for the G20 presidency and said this reflects the spirit needed to achieve “the just peace the people of Ukraine want”.
In response to questions, Brink said Ukraine’s counter-offensive is “going as planned” and the US is “supporting totally Ukraine’s efforts to take back its territory”. The US is “encouraged and optimistic” about the counter-offensive and will continue its security assistance.