Allowing Russia to do what it is doing in Ukraine will be message to aggressors everywhere: US

Allowing Russia to do what it is doing in Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday, will send a message to aggressors everywhere.

“If we allow Russia to do what it is doing in Ukraine then that’s a message to the aggressors everwhere that they may be able to get away with it too,” US Secy of State Antony Blinken said at the meeting of the Quad Foreign Ministers in the national capital. Blinken was speaking at the Raisina Dialogue 2023 in Delhi themed “The Quad Squad: Power and Purpose of the Polygon,”, where all Quad Foreign Ministers participated in-person.

“For us, the future is so much in Indo-Pacific…Even as we are rightly focussed on what is happening in Ukraine as a result of Russian aggression, not just because it matters to Ukrainians and to Ukraine and Europe, but because it matters to the entire world,” Blinken added.

Blinken believes Quad grouping is a force for good, positive, and affirmative action. The meeting was presided over by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, and it was attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi, and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

The meeting takes place a day after the G20 foreign ministers meet in the national capital, and according to the Ministry of External Affairs, it provides an opportunity for the ministers to continue discussions begun at their previous meeting in New York in September 2022. Blinken and Jaishankar met on Thursday to discuss ways to mitigate the global consequences of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Blinken spoke with Jaishankar on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and shared his thoughts on addressing global and regional challenges. Secretary Blinken and Minister Jaishankar also talked about how to mitigate the global consequences of Russia’s war in Ukraine, US-India cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, the successful launch of the initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), and regional issues.

Earlier in the day, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to reverse Moscow’s “irreversible decision” and resume implementing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (New START).