‘US doesn’t single out India on rights abuses targeting Muslims’

WASHINGTON: The United States doesn’t ‘single India out’ on its human rights violations and pursuit of anti-Muslim policies, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan has said, ahead of President Joe Biden’s meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tokyo Tuesday, on the sidelines of the Quad summit.

Quad, officially the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, is an anti-China alliance led by the US that includes India, Australia and Japan, Sullivan, who briefed the journalists aboard president flights to Tokyo, was asked by a reporter how the US administration ‘balances’ engaging economically with Modi, given his serious ‘human rights abuses’ and targeting of Muslims.

“Biden has been clear from the beginning of this administration that we’ll speak out when we see any form of departure from or deviation from basic principles, fundamental freedoms, human rights, the values of democratic institutions, and the rule of law,” Sullivan said.

He also said that the US had ‘found a way’ to pursue practical cooperation with countries that were democratic and non-democratic, “while at the same time being clear and consistent of where American values lie.”