Russian Ambassador Denis Alipov has claimed that a senior US official publicly acknowledged that Washington would not allow India to develop into another China — a competitor — describing the remark as a “Freudian slip”.
“I think this year at the Raisina Dialogue, one of the top US officials revealed and spoke publicly that the ‘US will never allow India to become the next China’ as a competitor. “So as India becomes stronger and stronger, and eventually a superpower — which is inevitable — the US would be doing everything possible to contain India. And so, we regard this measure, the Graham Act, as such. The ambassador’s comments came as India faces pressure from the US over its purchases of Russian crude. “In response to this, I think India has shown strategic autonomy and strength. The US has articulated to pressure Russia with this act. It is by itself absurd. And the US, I would repeat that, very well knows that. And I think as India rises, this kind of pressure. Tactics will continue and will aggravate, will increase,” he added. “Trust and respect are the very qualities that characterise our relationship. You don’t do business with untrustworthy partners. And it has been, as Minister S Jaishankar once pointed out, remarkably consistent. “Throughout all these decades, we have been friends who have been reliable partners to each other — not only Russia to India, but both ways.
Because neither side had made its ties dependent on the immediate state of global affairs, alipov said the relationship had survived major changes in global politics over the years. The Graham Act or the Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, is a recently introduced US law signed by Donald Trump which is designed to increase economic pressure on Russia and strengthen sanctions against Iran. The Graham Act gives the US authority to impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on countries buying Russian oil and gas. Since the times of the Soviet Union, since India’s independence — next year we are going to celebrate 80 years of our diplomatic relations,” he said.
It was like a Freudian slip,” Alipov said. We have never conditioned our relations on any immediate global disposition, so we have never regarded our relationship as a zero-sum game,” he said. “I think this consistency, the assistance and help to each other throughout the years, has made a very solid foundation for our relations to go further with wide perspectives.”
