Launching an hour-long video call, US officials described as “warm” and “honest”, Biden and Monti publicly expressed growing concern about the devastation inside Ukraine, especially in Bukha, where many civilians have been killed. Biden stopped making “specific requests” to Monti on Monday, an official said, noting that India was concerned about deepening ties between Russia and China. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register However, he told Monti that India’s position in the world would not improve by relying on Russian energy sources, US officials said. “The president has made it very clear that it is not in their interest to increase it,” said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki. Extensive talks have taken place between the world’s two largest democracies as the United States seeks more help from India to condemn and put financial pressure on Russia over an invasion that Moscow calls a “special military operation.” “Recently, the news of the killing of innocent civilians in the town of Buca was very worrying,” Monti said during a brief portion of the meeting open to reporters. “We condemned it immediately and called for an independent inquiry.” Monti also said that he had suggested in recent talks with Russia that President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have direct talks. The nation of South Asia has tried to balance its ties with Russia and the West, but unlike other members of the Quad countries – the United States, Japan and Australia – has not imposed sanctions on Russia. Biden recently said that only India among the Quad countries was “somewhat unstable” in its action against Russia. Driven by sharp rebates following Western sanctions on Russian entities, India has bought at least 13 million barrels of Russian crude oil since the invasion in late February. That compares with about 16 million barrels for the whole of last year, according to data collected by Reuters. Psaki did not say whether India had made any commitments on energy imports, but said Washington was ready to help the country diversify its energy sources. Noting Monti’s statements about the war on Monday, Psaki said, “Part of our goal now is to build on that and encourage them to do more. And that’s why it’s important to have conversations between leaders.” A US official added: “We have not asked India to do anything specific.” The official said that “India will make its own judgments” after “a very frank discussion”. Talks in Washington on Monday were scheduled between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh. Biden told Monti he was looking forward to seeing him in Japan for a Quadripartite meeting “around May 24” and the two leaders also discussed a number of other issues, officials said. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Additional references by Nandita Bose, Kanishka Singh, Doina Chiacu and Andrea Shalal. Editing by Doina Chiacu, Alistair Bell and Howard Goller Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
