Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Joe Biden met virtually on Monday morning, as External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh were in Washington for the fourth ‘2+ 2’ foreign and defence ministry dialogues with their U.S. counterparts.
A diplomatic version of irresistible force meeting immovable object played out in the virtual meeting between United States President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, with Washington unable to persuade New Delhi to follow the US-Nato line on Russia.
Starting an hour-long video call U.S. officials described as "warm" and "candid," Biden and Modi both publicly expressed growing alarm at the destruction inside Ukraine, especially in Bucha, where many civilians have been killed.
"I spoke today with Prime Minister Modi of India. We committed to strengthening our defense, economic, and people-to-people relationship to together seek a peaceful and prosperous world." tweeted Biden.
With no perceptible change in their differences on the Russia - Ukraine war, both sides pressed ahead with other areas of cooperation, including addressing potential crippling global food shortages that could result from a long drawn-out war. Senior US administration officials who briefed reporters following the meeting said the two leaders had a warm and candid conversation lasting an hour and covered a wide range of subjects, including the contentious Russia-Ukraine war and India's defence and energy-related ties with Moscow.
Mr. Modi, who spoke via videolink to Mr Biden, described the situation in Ukraine as “very worrying” and said he had spoken, several times, with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin and had not just urged peace, but also direct talks between them. India’s unwillingness to call out Russia by name for its attack on Ukraine has not gone down well in Washington, but U.S. officials have also said that they hoped countries that have relationships with Moscow might leverage them to bring about a resolution to the situation.