Nandita Bhose

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – President Joe Biden will meet virtually with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday. This comes at a moment when the United States is not keen to see India import more Russian energy.

Jen Psaki, press secretary for Biden said on Sunday that “President Biden will maintain our close consultations regarding the consequences of Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine and mitigating their destabilizing effect on global food supply and market prices.”

Daleep Singh (Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics), who recently visited India, stated that the United States would not place any “red lines” for India regarding its imports of energy from Russia, but doesn’t want to see an “accelerated” pace in India’s purchases.

Since the invasion of Ukraine in February, India bought at least 13,000,000 barrels Russian oil. This was in spite of steep discounts due to Western sanctions against Russian entities. This is compared to 16 million barrels of Russian for the entire year last year according to data compiled from Reuters.

Biden stated previously that India, the Quad grouping of countries, was only “a little shaky” when it came to acting against Russia for its invasion in Ukraine.

While the South Asian nation tried to find a balance between Russia and West, unlike the other Quad member countries (USA, Japan, and Australia), it hasn’t imposed any sanctions on Russia.

As Ukraine prepares for major Russian incursions in its east, it said Sunday that it would seek additional European Union sanctions against Moscow as well as military assistance from its allies.

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation.”