US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russian President Vladimir Putin might have formerly used nuclear munitions on Ukraine, to end the war, if not for India and China.
Blinken, ahead of his visit to India for the G20 peak, credited India and China for having “ a little bit more influence with Russia these days ” in opposing the use of nuclear munitions on the battleground.
In an interview to The Atlantic, Blinken said,” Putin might reply more, indeed more irrationally, and there was language coming out of Moscow that suggested that he’d look to the use of politic nuclear munitions. It was a concern.”
” We prompted, and I suppose successfully, other countries that might have a little bit more influence with Russia these days, like China, but also other countries like India, to engage him( Vladimir Putin) directly about their absolute opposition to any use of nuclear munitions. And we know that they conveyed those dispatches, and I suppose that had some effect,” he added.
Antony Blinken also conceded that India and Russia have a decades-long relationship, but effects are moving favourably between India and the US now too.
” India for decades had Russia at the core furnishing military outfit to it and its defenses, but what we ’ve seen over the last many times is a line down from counting on Russia and moving into cooperation with us and with other countries like France,” he said in the interview with The Atlantic.
INDIA AND CHINA’S NEUTRAL STANCE
India and China abstained from advancing on ending the Ukraine war in the 193- member United Nations General Assembly on Friday, the one- time anniversary of the conflict. While 141 members suggested in favour of the resolution, seven opposed it. India and China were among the 32 members that abstained.
Both India and China have so far taken a neutral station, calling for dialogue and peaceful accommodations to end the Ukraine war that has entered its alternate time.
” India remains steadfastly committed to multilateralism and upholds the principles of the UN Charter. We’ll always call for dialogue and tactfulness as the only feasible way out. While we take note of the stated ideal of moment’s Resolution, given its essential limitations in reaching our asked thing of securing lasting peace, we’re constrained to hesitate,” India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ruchira Kamboj told the UN.
Kamboj said that India’s approach to the Ukraine conflict will continue to be people- centric and reiterated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that this can not be an period of war.