India says it wants to be strong friends with West but needs Russian weapons

WASHINGTON • India wants to be strong friends with the "liberal world" but it needs Russia's assistance to defend its borders, a top minister said, following criticism about New Delhi's refusal to outright condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine.

India is the world's top buyer of Russian weapons, which it uses to deter aggression from neighbours Pakistan and China - two countries that have cooperated on defence. While the US has traditionally sought to balance ties between India and Pakistan, which for years was an important partner in Afghanistan, it has been wooing India to counter China.

"You have a neighbour, who joins hands with another neighbour, both of whom are against me," Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in an interview in Washington on Friday. "In the context of the Russia-Ukraine war, God forbid, if there are alliances created, India has to be strong enough to protect itself."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has already conveyed this "unique" geopolitical position to the US, Ms Sitharaman added.

A senior US diplomat on Thursday again warned China of sanctions if it offers "material support" for Mr Putin's war, while also pledging to help India end its dependence on Russian weapons.

"India wants to be friends with the European Union and the Western, free, liberal world, but not as a weak friend," Ms Sitharaman said. "Unless I am strong, given the fact that I am geopolitically located in such an area, how do you expect me to even defend myself?"

Asked if India is still looking for an alternative payment mechanism for Russia to overcome sanctions that locked it out of the Swift international payments system, Ms Sitharaman said "at the moment there is no transaction of that significance".

BLOOMBERG