The White House announced on Tuesday, 29 March, that Indian American Daleep Singh, who is the Deputy National Security Adviser to the US government, will be in New Delhi this week to discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine with the Indian government.
He will be in the capital on Wednesday and Thursday.
Emily Horne, spokesperson of the National Security Council of the White House, said, “Singh will consult closely with counterparts on the consequences of Russia's unjustified war against Ukraine and mitigating its impact on the global economy.”
This visit comes ahead of the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's visit to India this week. Lavrov will meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and other officials. He is currently in Beijing attending a conference on Afghanistan.
The plans regarding Daleep Singh's trip to Delhi were "made before reports about the Russian Foreign Minister had appeared", a US official said, reported The Hindu.
Singh's visit coincides with the trip being taken by British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who will meet Jaishankar on Thursday.
US Adviser To Also Discuss Priorities of Biden Administration
Horne said that Ukraine crisis will be a priority topic during Singh’s visit to India and that he will also discuss the priorities of US President Biden administration, including the promotion of infrastructure development initiative Build Back Better World and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.
Singh’s visit also comes ahead of the '2+2' foreign and defence ministerial dialogue in Washington on 11 April.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will hold talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
More About Daleep Singh
Daleep Singh, via his roles as Deputy National Security Advisor for international economics and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council, is leading the Biden government's imposition of sanctions on Russia.
Singh has in the past worked as the executive vice president for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, following which he was the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Markets under the Obama administration for a while.
The 46-year-old US advisor is the great-grandson of Dalip Singh Saund, the first Asian-American elected to the Congress.
In a recent interview to CBS News' 60 Minutes, he had stated that people in the Kremlin are "taking some desperate measures" in response to the sanctions that have been imposed on them by several countries.
"I think it's a desperate move. He's [Vladimir Putin] self-isolating his economy. Russia is now on the fast track to a 1980s-style Soviet living standard. It's looking into an economic abyss, and that is the result of Putin's choices and I can see from his reaction that's where it's headed," Singh had said.
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