File picture of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Kremlin in Moscow
| Photo Credit: via Reuters

Observing that India has a longstanding relationship with Russia, the U.S. has said that it has encouraged New Delhi to “utilise” that relationship with Moscow and urge President Vladimir Putin to end the “illegal war” against Ukraine.

These remarks were made by State Department Spokesperson Mathew Miller at his daily news conference on Monday.

“India has a longstanding relationship with Russia. I think that’s well-known. And we have encouraged India to utilise that relationship with Russia, that longstanding relationship and the unique position that they have, to urge President Putin to end his illegal war and to find a just peace, a lasting peace to this conflict; to tell Putin to respect the UN Charter, to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty,” he said.

“That’s what we’ll continue to impress upon the Government of India, which is an important partner of ours when it comes to their relationship with Russia,” Mr. Miller said in response to a question.

Mr. Miller made similar remarks on July 9 soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi left Russia.

Mr. Modi was in Russia for two days from July 8-9 for the 22nd India-Russia annual summit that has been watched closely by the West amidst the raging Ukraine conflict.

This was the Prime Minister’s first visit to Russia since the war started between Moscow and Kyiv in 2022.

During his talks with Mr. Putin on July 9, Prime Minister Modi told President Putin that a solution to the Ukraine conflict is not possible on the battlefield and peace efforts do not succeed amid bombs and bullets.

India has been stoutly defending its “special and privileged strategic partnership” with Russia and maintained the momentum in the ties notwithstanding the Ukraine conflict.

India has not yet condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has consistently pitched for a resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.

The US expelled two Russian diplomats, weeks after Moscow ordered two Americans to leave, the latest tit-for-tat expulsions as relations continue to worsen between the two countries.

The move came after Russia ousted the two US diplomats for contacts with a former consular employee who had been accused of collecting sensitive information. The US has called those allegations baseless.

“The Department will not tolerate the Russian government’s pattern of harassment of our diplomats,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

The unidentified Russian diplomats were given seven days to depart the US. That was the same amount of time given to US diplomats Jeffrey Sillin and David Bernstein, who were ordered to leave Russia last month.

Sillin and Bernstein were accused of contact with a former employee of the US consulate in Vladivostok who later pleaded guilty to gathering confidential information.

Russia and the US have engaged in a series of reciprocal expulsions dating to well before Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)