(Bloomberg) -- Ukraine warned New Delhi that Russian firms are setting up fronts in India to skirt US sanctions, a development that could hurt India’s ties with Western partners wary of technology and weapons falling into the hands of Moscow.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, at least eight Russian companies have started operations in India and “the number is growing,” Ukraine’s Ambassador to India Oleksandr Polishchuk said in an interview in New Delhi on Monday. Ukraine has shared intelligence with India’s government and urged it to take action, he said.
Russia is using all possible tools to “hide” its growing business interest in the South Asian country, the ambassador said. The Indian firms involved in the trade could face sanctions by the US and its allies, which may affect the domestic business environment and India’s credibility as a reliable partner, he said.
Western firms will want to have “hundred percent trust that all of this technology will not later on go to Russia,” the ambassador said.
The US Treasury last month sanctioned 19 Indian companies, along with others from China and Turkey, for selling goods to Russia that helped keep its war machine running. Among the Indian firms was Shreya Life Sciences, a Mumbai-based pharmaceutical company, which Bloomberg News reported was exporting high-end Nvidia chips to Russia.
Responding to the US’s action last month, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said while the Indian firms weren’t breaking any local laws, the government was working with businesses to make them aware of the export rules and new measures that could impact them.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to balance India’s relationship with the US, its allies and Russia, but war in Ukraine has put those ties under greater scrutiny. India is now the second-biggest supplier of restricted critical technologies to Russia. It’s reliant on Russia for cheap oil as well as military equipment. India’s External Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said last week bilateral trade could grow to $100 billion by 2030 from about $66 billion now.
“We very much value our political relationship with India,” Polishchuk said. “And we want to continue in such a way that we are trusted to the Indians.”
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