Reorienting India's Foreign Policy Away From Russia Not Easy, Says US

The US said that it will be a long-term proposition for India to reorient its foreign policy away from Russia.

Reorienting a country's foreign policy is not something that can be done over the course of weeks or even months, said US Department Spokesperson Ned Price. 

(Photo: The Quint/Arnica Kala)

The United States on Wednesday, 17 August, said that it is going to be a long-term proposition for India, which has a decades-old relationship with Moscow, to reorient its foreign policy away from Russia.

"Reorienting a country’s foreign policy or a country’s security establishment or defense procurement practices away from a country like Russia is not something that we can do overnight. It’s not something that we can do over the course of weeks or even months. We do see this as a long-term challenge," US Department Spokesperson Ned Price said at a press conference in response to a question on the US' failure to isolate Moscow.

"It’s not for me to speak to another country’s foreign policy. But what I can do is point out what we have heard, statements from India. We have seen countries around the world speak clearly, including with their votes in the UN General Assembly, against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. But we also recognize, as I was saying just a moment ago, that this is not flipping a light switch."

US Department Spokesperson Ned Price

"This is something that especially for countries that have historical relationships with Russia, relationships that, as is the case with India, extend back decades, it is going to be a long-term proposition to reorient foreign policy away from Russia," added Price.

India has had good relations with Russia ever since the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two nations following the former's independence in 1947. India gets much of its arms and some of its oil from Moscow.

In October 2018, India signed a $5 billion deal with Russia to buy five units of the S-400 air defence missile systems, despite a warning from the then-Trump administration that going ahead with the contract may invite US sanctions.

The US has already imposed sanctions on Turkey under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) for the purchase of a batch of S-400 missile defence systems from Russia.

Russia is its second biggest oil supplier to India after Iraq.