White House: India Ties Are Most Important

US President Biden believes that the US-India partnership is the most crucial relationship the US has globally, said White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday.

Speaking about the 1st India-US 2+2 dialogue under the Joe Biden administration next week, she said that President expects that the dialogue will continue driving forward US’ work with India and shared goals in the Indo-Pacific region.

Secretary of state Antony Blinken and secretary of defense Lloyd Austin will welcome their counterparts S Jaishankar and Rajnath Singh in Washington DC on Sunday.

“We also believe both sides will continue our close consultations on the consequences of President Vladimir Putin’s brutal war against Ukraine and mitigating the impact by addressing energy and food prices. It could cover a range of topics, but we expect that to be a central one,” Psaki added.

There has been some uneasiness in Washington over India’s position on the Ukraine crisis and its decision to procure discounted Russian oil. But Psaki said the administration’s key architect for Russian sanctions, Daleep Singh, had not warned India on oil imports from Russia during his recent trip to New Delhi and had a rather constructive dialogue. She noted that India imports more energy from the US than from Russia.