US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference in Delhi on Thursday that Russia could end the war in Ukraine tomorrow if it wanted to. He said only Russia and China have refused to sign the Bali document, and no G20 country has coordinated with Russia at the NGA.
Blinken said: “Every country is suffering the effects of the Russian war in Ukraine. We must feed the hungry and help countries become agricultural enough. We also discussed at the G20 WMF the need for Russia to expand the Black Sea Grains Initiative.”
” Tomorrow we have a Quad FM meeting,” said Blinken.
During a brief meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Blinken said he urged the Russian minister to resume START treaty negotiations, end the war and get back on track. “I spoke briefly with Lavrov today. I urged him to come back and negotiate the exit agreement. I raised the issue of the illegal detention of an American prisoner in Russia,” he said.
When asked about democracy in India, Blinken replied that India and the United States are two democracies that must take responsibility for the fundamental values of democracy. “We regularly work with our Indian counterparts on this issue, as we did today with Jaishankar, the US Secretary of State said.
On NGO restrictions in India, he said: On NGO restrictions, we are discussing with our Indian colleagues the need to allow all NGOs to do their work without restrictions, which regularly comes up in our discussions.
In a stern warning to China, Blinken said that if China were to help Russia militarily or lift sanctions against Russia, it would be a serious problem and “would have consequences.”
(With inputs from The Hindu)
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