LONDON: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak discussed India’s neutral stance on Ukraine with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their recent phone call, it has emerged. UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also raised the issue ‘directly’ with the Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar during his recent trip to India.
Reading No. 10 of Sunak’s call with Modi did not mention Ukraine, but said the two leaders were “discussing shared global challenges”. But during a debate on Ukraine in the House of Lords on Tuesday, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, UK Deputy Minister for South Asia, confirmed that the issue had been raised at the highest level.
He was responding to a question from his Liberal Democrat counterpart Lord Purvis of Tweed, who asked: “Could the minister be specific about what we say to our allies in the Gulf and in India in particular? Has the foreign minister and the prime minister raised concern at the highest level about the impact of our allies in effectively providing neutrality but also therefore providing de facto support? This is a difficult area for UK foreign policy, but one that we must tackle. It would be depressing if we depended too much on foreign investment from the Gulf and had too much hope for a trade deal with India if that prevented us from having very tough conversations with our allies.
Lord Ahmad replied that Cleverly “raised the matter directly with EAM Jaishankar” during his recent trip to India. Then he said: “I know that Prime Minister Sunak also spoke to Prime Minister Modi and again the situation in Ukraine was an integral part of their discussions, and that will continue.”
He added that the UK was already seeing “progress”. He said: “Specifically, we have seen some Gulf states move from abstaining to supporting Ukraine’s position in multilateral forums, particularly the UN. It is through intensive diplomacy and strong demonstration that the aggressor here is Russia.
Tory peer Lord Howell of Guildford said British diplomats should at least be able to mobilize ‘the other 55 members of the Commonwealth’ to ensure they take a stronger stand ‘than some of them’ against “The Russian Attack on Humanity”.
To which Lord Ahmad replied: “The commitment and unity shown on the diplomatic front is closely coordinated with key partners; we will also continue to advocate for other allies… When we got 140 and 141 votes at the UN, we were told that we had reached the pinnacle of international collaboration. Many thought it could no longer be achieved, but we did; we reached 143… Which should be very clear to Mr. Cheese fries when he looks across the international scene and sees who is supporting him and who has voted with Russia – Nicaragua, Belarus, and I believe North Korea has supported Russia on some occasions – it is that a person is judged by her friends; Mr. Putin doesn’t have many friends anymore.
Reading No. 10 of Sunak’s call with Modi did not mention Ukraine, but said the two leaders were “discussing shared global challenges”. But during a debate on Ukraine in the House of Lords on Tuesday, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, UK Deputy Minister for South Asia, confirmed that the issue had been raised at the highest level.
He was responding to a question from his Liberal Democrat counterpart Lord Purvis of Tweed, who asked: “Could the minister be specific about what we say to our allies in the Gulf and in India in particular? Has the foreign minister and the prime minister raised concern at the highest level about the impact of our allies in effectively providing neutrality but also therefore providing de facto support? This is a difficult area for UK foreign policy, but one that we must tackle. It would be depressing if we depended too much on foreign investment from the Gulf and had too much hope for a trade deal with India if that prevented us from having very tough conversations with our allies.
Lord Ahmad replied that Cleverly “raised the matter directly with EAM Jaishankar” during his recent trip to India. Then he said: “I know that Prime Minister Sunak also spoke to Prime Minister Modi and again the situation in Ukraine was an integral part of their discussions, and that will continue.”
He added that the UK was already seeing “progress”. He said: “Specifically, we have seen some Gulf states move from abstaining to supporting Ukraine’s position in multilateral forums, particularly the UN. It is through intensive diplomacy and strong demonstration that the aggressor here is Russia.
Tory peer Lord Howell of Guildford said British diplomats should at least be able to mobilize ‘the other 55 members of the Commonwealth’ to ensure they take a stronger stand ‘than some of them’ against “The Russian Attack on Humanity”.
To which Lord Ahmad replied: “The commitment and unity shown on the diplomatic front is closely coordinated with key partners; we will also continue to advocate for other allies… When we got 140 and 141 votes at the UN, we were told that we had reached the pinnacle of international collaboration. Many thought it could no longer be achieved, but we did; we reached 143… Which should be very clear to Mr. Cheese fries when he looks across the international scene and sees who is supporting him and who has voted with Russia – Nicaragua, Belarus, and I believe North Korea has supported Russia on some occasions – it is that a person is judged by her friends; Mr. Putin doesn’t have many friends anymore.
