'Relations That...': US Envoy Eric Garcetti on India's Role as Peacemaker in Russia-Ukraine Crisis

New Delhi: United States Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti has said that Quad is about finding solutions to common challenges,  standing for principles that not every country shares. He further said that US sees India as a friend and not a counterbalance to China adding aggression should not be rewarded anywhere.

On PM Modi’s Russia and Ukraine visit, Eric Garcetti said, “We welcome everyone's cooperation and participation in peacemaking. Peacemaking is hard work. It requires difficult conversations with friends. I think if you start from the principle that the most important law we have in the world is the sovereignty of borders. Something India lives with every single day. It's clear that we have to make sure that peace comes not at the expense of any country. So we welcome that participation as long as it abides by those principles of an unwarranted, unasked-for invasion of a sovereign country across that sovereign border. The relations that India has had with Ukraine and with Russia, I think do position Prime Minister Modi, Minister Jaishankar and others to play a critical role. And if we keep those principles together, I think we welcome that because there's going to have to be tough conversations with friends. India opens doors, sometimes the US doesn't and vice versa... As we have seen two democracies hold two elections, it shows democracies are stronger that the rule of law does matter, that principles should rule the day...”

“I would say that we see India as a friend and a partner, not a counterbalance. We share the principles about borders and sovereignty, about the rule of law. We've stood with India on the border when there have been conflicts... We have a long history of ensuring that aggression should not be rewarded anywhere in the world. When it comes to China, we all want to have peaceful relations with China. We support India's diplomatic interactions right now and I think it was announced... nobody should move ahead when their sovereignty is threatened. That is something that we respect and will follow India's lead in India's land…”

“There's no question that security and peace is the most important thing for any country and for all of our people. So whether it's the new announcement on Coast Guard integration and having our crews work together or whether it's the hub to allow some of our military planes and things like that to be able to interoperate, be fixed in each other's countries that show interoperability to protect our people, but it is not first and foremost, some sort of military alliance looking to project power, it is looking to preserve peace and to make sure that we have prosperity for the entire plan....”

“It's not about any one nation. It's really about these four nations and this common vision that there should be a free open, prosperous Indo-Pacific and if you look at the declaration, it underscores that from cooperating together on health care, whether it's security and making sure our coast guards can act with each other in a way during a humanitarian disaster that can keep our people safe and protected or whether it's looking at economic development of things like supply chains to make sure no one country can throttle those supply chains in critical minerals... we put a billion dollars together between just US and India to find climate solutions when we have almost 900 million people who are climate-vulnerable in our two countries. So of course, other countries will look in but nobody should feel threatened by the QUAD. But the QUAD is about standing up for principles that not every country shares. It is about finding solutions to common challenges that not everybody is doing in a multilateral way and I think it is inspiring the world. The QUAD doesn't just work in four countries, we are looking at the entire region and how we can give something to everyone...,” he said.

"These are two men (PM Modi and Joe Biden ) who have such a close friendship, the most pro-American prime minister we've ever seen in Indian history, the most pro-Indian president we've had in US history and that's building on people who have been very strong before. I think they are representative of the people in their country... the Quad is a powerful place to set a vision, to share principles and to come up with common solutions in the Indo-Pacific. It's a contrast to nations that don't want to play by the rules, don't believe in the rule of law, but I think we will build solutions. It's about what we can do proactively and this was a giant step forward…," Garcetti concluded.