Doubt India wants Russian equipment that failed in Ukraine, don’t need loyalty test: Condoleezza Rice

Palo Alto: Common values and interests will lead to a stronger partnership between India and the US and events like Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia do not hamper that trajectory, former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice has said.

There is a need to move away from a “loyalty test every five minutes” about who is meeting with whom, she said at the Indus X (India-United States Defence Acceleration Ecosystem) summit to promote joint defence innovation at Stanford University.

Rice acknowledged that there is a historical relationship that India has with Russia when it comes to weapon systems and the Pentagon needs to do more to leverage ties with India.


“One of the reasons that India continues to have the defence relationship with Russia that it does is because we’ve been slow in the United States, in the Pentagon, to fully leverage the opportunity with India, because we have a number of constraints still in terms of end user and so forth,” Rice said at the event organised by the US India Strategic Partnership Forum.

She said India fully understands the strategic relationship between China and Russia, which is a real challenge to its interests. “A visit to Russia doesn’t really change the fact that I doubt very much that ultimately India will want to be dependent on that Russian junk that they call military equipment that is failing so badly in Ukraine,” she said.

The former secretary of state said support for India in the US is not just bipartisan but also enduring and will continue on a strong trajectory no matter the next administration. “You're going to hear from whoever occupies the White House in January that this is one of the most important – if not the most important – relationships,” she said.

Rice, who is director of Hoover Institution, said the US is delighted to have a democracy like India on its side, pointing out that China has emerged as a real challenge when it comes to technology, some of which it acquired through immoral means like intellectual property theft.

The two-day Indus X summit on ‘Harnessing investment opportunities to enhance cross-border defence innovation ecosystems’ will conclude on Tuesday.