US Deputy Secretary of State and former US Ambassador to India Richard Verma was final week given a brand new duty because the US particular consultant for Ukraine’s financial restoration | Picture credit score: The Hindu
Expressing “pleasure” over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “essential go to” to kyiv this week, a senior US official, who’s visiting New Delhi, stated it’s clear that the worldwide neighborhood has taken a stand in opposition to Russia’s conflict in Ukraine.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and former U.S. Ambassador to India Richard Verma was final week given extra duty as U.S. Particular Consultant for Ukraine Financial Restoration and traveled to India and Nepal for conferences.
His feedback got here weeks after a sequence of important feedback by the US State Division on Modi’s go to to Moscow on July 9, indicating that Modi’s choice to journey to Poland and Ukraine has now been appreciated in Washington.
“I’m delighted with this go to and I feel it is a crucial go to,” Verma stated, talking at a dialogue on “US and India: A Partnership of Progress and Promise” held on the Delhi-based Centre for Social and Financial Progress (CSEP), the place he outlined the most recent developments within the bilateral relationship. “What we have now witnessed within the final two and a half years is an try by Russia to destabilise the world order, to disrupt the post-World Struggle II system,” he added, accusing Russia of annexing Ukrainian territory in contravention of worldwide regulation.
“We perceive the long-standing relationship that India has with Russia, and India has to take its personal choice on the place it needs to be on the dimensions,” Verma stated, whereas praising Modi’s assertion that this isn’t a “time for conflict.” “However this can be a crucial interval for upholding freedom and the rule of regulation,” he added, later saying he was “wanting ahead to the outcomes” of Modi’s go to to kyiv.
The Russian International Ministry has not commented to this point on Modi’s go to to Ukraine, which comes at a time when the Ukrainian navy has reportedly superior in Russia’s Kursk area. The Russian Embassy in India additionally didn’t reply to Verma’s feedback. On Monday (August 19, 2024), International Ministry officers had dismissed questions on whether or not US strain had prompted Modi to take the choice to go to Ukraine, saying India’s ties with Russia and Ukraine had been unbiased of one another and never a “zero-sum sport”.
Throughout his go to to the area, which included a cease in Kathmandu, Verma met Exterior Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar. Neither facet explicitly talked about the state of affairs in Ukraine or a doable Indian function within the battle, with Jaishankar saying in a social media submit that they “mentioned the continued momentum of our bilateral relations and exchanged views on sure regional and international points.”
Learn additionally: Relationship with India stays of nice significance, says Pentagon
In his speak, Mr. Verma touched on quite a lot of areas the place India-US ties have grown lately, with particular point out of joint tasks in local weather change, superior applied sciences, area and most cancers analysis.
Rana’s extradition request
In the meantime, in response to a query on India’s long-pending request for extradition of Tahawwur Hussain Rana, needed as a co-conspirator within the 2008 Mumbai assault, a US embassy official confirmed {that a} US courtroom had rejected his attraction.
“We’re lucky to have an extradition settlement with the Authorities of India that enables for extradition between our nations. [Rana’s] “The legal professionals filed an attraction which, as you noticed, was rejected by the courts,” stated US embassy spokesman Chris Elms, talking on the identical occasion.
He added that “the case continues to maneuver by the US authorized system” however didn’t present particulars on how for much longer it’d take for Rana, who has been held in a Los Angeles jail since 2020 awaiting extradition hearings, to be handed over to India to face trial right here.
