“India is facing completely unjustified international pressure”

By Sergey Lavrov*

New York:  I think India is a great power, which sets its own national interests and chooses its partners. We know that India is being subject to enormous and completely unjustified pressure in the international arena.

Recently, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, or someone from Zelenskyy’s team, spoke insultingly about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Russia, calling it a stab in the back of all peace efforts. The Indian Foreign Ministry summoned the Ukrainian ambassador and explained to him how he should be behaving.

Also read: After Zelenskyy critices Modi for hugging Putin, US tells India to support peace in Ukraine

Before that, there were a lot of examples when Ukrainian ambassadors behaved as if they were hooligans. There was Ambassador to Germany Andrey Melnik who was consistently outraged that [German Chancellor] Olaf Scholtz was not giving Ukraine enough money and enough weapons. In an interview, he publicly called the chancellor of Germany an offended liver sausage. This is a quote; you can find it online.

Ukraine Ambassador to Kazakhstan Pyotr Vrublevsky publicly said in an interview that they would do everything they could to kill as many Russians as possible so that their children had less work to do and that they would see this job through to the end.

So, I believe that India is doing everything right. My colleague, Foreign Minister of India Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, when answering a question after a tour of Western states why they are buying more oil from Russia, cited statistics showing that the West has also increased the purchases of gas and oil from the Russian Federation, despite some of the restrictions. Then, Mr Jaishankar went on to say that India will decide for itself how to trade, with whom, and how to defend its national interests.

The fact that the West is exhibiting its displeasure to powers like China and India shows their lack of erudition, and their inability to partake in diplomacy, and also speaks about the failure of their political analysts, because subduing these two great Asian powers… Keep dreaming, as they say. The course they chose against all countries is really beneath them, but in particular, speaking this way with these two giants…

*The Russian Foreign Minister was responding to a question on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Moscow, and his reactions to the opposition that India faces for the energy cooperation with Russia, at a press conference. Lavrov was in New York for two days to attend two key events – open debates  – that were held on July 16-17, 2024, within the framework of Russia’s UN Security Council Presidency.

– global bihari bureau