Differences on Ukraine won’t hurt ties with India: US

The friendship between the United States and India has never been stronger and disagreements over Russia's invasion of Ukraine won't hinder ties between the two, Washington's new ambassador to New Delhi said yesterday.

Eric Garcetti said India had helped to keep the price cap on Russian oil imposed by the Group of Seven economies, the European Union and Australia late last year to try to deprive Moscow of funds to fight its Ukraine war.

"We won't stop speaking about the unprovoked war of aggression by Russia against Ukraine," Garcetti told news channel CNN-News 18, weeks before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's state-visit to the United States from June 21-24.

"At the same time, where we don't agree 100 percent of the time, we are not going to stop the momentum in this relationship," he said. "We know that we can continue doing things together."

New Delhi has refused to condemn its old ally Russia for the war and has increased its trade with Moscow to record levels, driven largely by imports of Russian oil.