NEW YORK: State Department Spokesperson Ned Price has acknowledged that India developed defence ties with Russia because the US was not ready for such a relationship when the Soviet Union and India drew close. But he said in March that in spite of India’s historical relationship with Russia, the US is a “partner of choice” for New Delhi, and the ties with Washington, including in the defence and security sectors, keep evolving.

Price made the observations when asked by a reporter at his briefing about President Joe Biden’s statement that among the Quad partners India was “shaky” in isolating Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. “You raised an interesting issue of history versus where we are now,” Price said.

The ties began with the Soviet Union and continued with Russia after the communist mega-state disintegrated. He referred to Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland’s statement in New Delhi in January that India had a historic defence relationship with Russia. Price said, “It was a very different time, different considerations, but those times have changed.”

“They’ve changed in terms of our willingness and ability to be a strong defence and security partner of India,” and have deepened over the past 25 years or so with bipartisan support, he said. He credited Republican former President George W. Bush for boosting the closer relationship with India. “It is a legacy in large part of the George W. Bush administration, where we have seen this bilateral relationship between the United States and India evolve and change for the better and deepen in a number of ways, including in our defence and security relationship,” he said.