US sanctions fallout to dominate Sochi talks

NEWDELHI: The global fallout of US sanctions on Russia and Iran will dominate Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s informal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Sochi on Monday even as New Delhi will try to make its position clear that it would like Moscow to invest much more in the bilateral relationship with India rather than in Europe.

South Block officials familiar with the forthcoming Sochi dialogue told Hindustan Times that Prime Minister Modi’s focus will be to exchange notes with Russia, which, along with France, Germany and the European Union, wants to pursue the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran after the US walked out of the agreement and imposed sanctions on the West Asian country earlier this month. The US has also imposed sanctions on Russia for its role in Syria and for allegedly trying to manipulate the US presidential elections, with Europe caught in the cleft stick.

Bilateral issues may also find a mention in Sochi with PM Modi looking towards an all-round relationship with Russia rather than merely a transactional one between a seller and buyer of military hardware. While India will continue to buy military equipment from Russia without any default on payments, the worry for India is Iranian crude imports as the trading currency under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JSPOA) with Iran is the US dollar. India had reduced oil imports to nearly 6% before JSPOA kicked in. Now, Indian imports of crude from Iran stand at 17% . Any wrong move, and oil prices will shoot up in India with serious domestic ramifications, say analysts. With elections due in 2019, the government would like to avoid that.

India has, meanwhile, allayed Russian concerns over its partnership with the US, with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval making no less than three visits to Moscow in the past two months and making it clear that both relationships are mutually exclusive and not interlinked. It has been conveyed to Russia that India has stood with Moscow through thick and thin in the past 70 years and has never objected to its close relationship with China.