NEW DELHI, September 13. /TASS corr. Evgeny Pakhomov/. Washington’s policy concerning Russia threatens to destabilize international relations, Indian expert in the sphere of international relations Kanwal Sibal told TASS on Thursday. Sibal served as India’s Foreign Secretary and was India’s ambassador to several countries, including Russia (in the years 2004-2007).
"I think that American policy towards Russia became unhinged. It does not make any sense whatsoever. It is geopolitically very dangerous for the entire world when a powerful country like Russia is being targeted as if it counted for nothing. Excluding Russia and cornering Russia is destabilizing international relations," Sibal said during the conference "India-Russia in the 21st Century: Enhancing the Special Privileged Strategic Partnership", which opened on Thursday in New Delhi.
"Unfortunately, it’s also impacting the Indian-Russian relations because of CAATSA (Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act - TASS) and open American demand that India should reduce its defense ties with Russia and increase defense ties with the US. Decisions in defense are sovereign decisions which a state takes and it cannot be imposed from outside," the Indian diplomat stressed.
"India’s national interests are involved and India is very firm and convinced that it will not compromise on its strategic partnership with Russia. Though the reality is that since the dollar is a weapon and dollar payments will become problematic, so India and Russia will have to work together to devise ways in which we can continue to do business in the defense sector as well as in other areas," Sibal noted.
He highlighted the importance of maintaining the principle of multilateral relations at a time when the US does not take into account the opinion of other countries. "It’s a new form of unilateralism that we see with the repudiation of the Iran agreement for instance, which creates problems for everybody. These are challenges that India and Russia have to face together. Therefore, there is every need today to stand on the political understanding between India and Russia even more in the face of common challenges that both countries are facing," Kanwal Sibal concluded.
