On Ukraine crisis, US says India focused on two things

Washington, Mar 03: The Biden administration is urging India to take a clear position on the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

US diplomat Donald Lu said that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been on the frontline of that battle and President Joe Biden and other senior officials are conducting dialogue with their Indian counterparts on Ukraine.

"India has focused on two things when trying to explain its position, one that it continues to want to leave on the table the possibility of a diplomatic resolution of this conflict. The second thing that they emphasize is India has 18,000 students still in Ukraine, and they are trying to work with both the Governments of Ukraine and Russia to safeguard those," Lu said.

"So we're making small steps and assure you we are on this and working every day to make sure that we are trying to close the gap between where we are and where our Indian partners are," Lu said.

"So you may have seen yesterday, the Indian government said it would send an airlift of humanitarian supplies from India to Ukraine. That's important. That's a request that's coming from Ukraine's leadership. Second, it said in a UN session that it called for all states to abide by the UN Charter to respect the sovereignty and territory, the territorial integrity of other states. That wasn't criticism of Russia, but a very clear reference to Russia's violation of the UN Charter and violation of Ukraine's sovereignty," Lu also said.