Washington: The US on Wednesday said that India is committed to a rules-based international order and expressed hope that India will support the US if Russia attacks the Ukraine dispute. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ned Price said that the issue of Russia and Ukraine was discussed in the recent meeting between the foreign ministers of the four countries (Quad) in Melbourne city of Australia. The foreign ministers of India, Australia, Japan, and the US attended the meeting.
“It was agreed at the meeting that there was a need for a diplomatic-peaceful solution to the matter,” Price said. The Quad favors maintaining a rules-based international order.” Responding to a question, the spokesperson said, “The rules-based system is equally applicable in the Indo-Pacific region, be it in Europe or elsewhere. We know that our Indian partner is committed to a rules-based international order. There are many rules in this system, one of them being that the boundaries cannot be redrawn by force.
Directly referring to China’s aggressive stance against India and other neighbors, he said, “Big countries cannot trouble small countries. The people of a country are entitled to choose their foreign policy, their partners, alliance partners, etc. These principles apply equally to the Indo-Pacific as in Europe.
Price said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and India’s Secretary of State S Jaishankar discussed defense-related issues, but refrained from commenting on whether there was any discussion on the issue of ‘Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions’. discussed or not. “Defense relations were discussed extensively, but I would not like to say anything more on this,” he said. Earlier, Blinken said that the US was doing everything possible to find a peaceful solution to the crisis created by Moscow.
“But those efforts, as we have said, will be effective only if the Russian Federation is ready to reduce the number of troops,” the foreign minister told reporters. “Frankly speaking, we haven’t seen that. Rather, in recent weeks, in days we have seen the exact opposite and Russian forces are on the border and they are deploying like a war situation. This is a matter of great concern. At the same time, as we have warned earlier, for several weeks we have seen Russian officials and Russian media spreading many stories in the press. A foreign ministry spokesman said any of these could be used as a reason for the attack.
He said, “It can happen at any time and the world has to be ready for it. For this, false claims of the activities of the Ukrainian military in the Donbas, the activities of US or NATO forces on land, air, and sea can also be resorted to.
