Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov is likely to visit India next week, people familiar with the developments told news agency Indian Express (IE). The visit comes shortly after India abstained from voting in a Russia-backed resolution in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Russia’s resolution was perceived to be critical of Ukraine. The resolution failed to pass as it lacked nine more votes. India, through its action, signalled to the Kremlin that it does not approve hostilities in Ukraine and is not aligned with Moscow.
India also abstained previously from voting in resolutions aimed at isolating Russia at the UNSC. New Delhi advocated peace, dialogue and diplomacy to prevail over ‘military hostilities’ with Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging both Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to speak directly. India indirectly expressed its displeasure towards the loss of human lives in Ukraine when in February it said that it was disturbed by the events in Ukraine.
“India is deeply disturbed by the recent turn of developments in Ukraine. No solution can be arrived at the cost of human lives,” TS Tirumurti, Indian envoy to the UN said.
The US reacted to India’s abstentions in the UNSC in the resolution critical of China. The US also singled out its partner in Quad after US president Joe Biden said that India was shaky in its criticism of Russia for its ‘military operation’ in Ukraine.
The visit also comes soon after Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit. Experts speaking to News18 pointed out that the Russia-China alliance has reasons for India to worry.
Former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal in his piece – Not European Theatre, India and Japan Must Worry about Russia-China Tango – he says that both nations, India and Japan, ‘need to knit understandings which are not tied to perspectives of the US and G7’. “With their own stakes in the Indo-Pacific region, the two countries also need to think independently of US policies that are also dictated by domestic political pressures,” Sibal writes.
Russia will also look to enhance economic ties with India and discussions related to buying of Russian crude may also be discussed between Lavrov and the ministers expected to meet him.
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