“It’s my view that it’s going to be very hard for anyone to buy major weapon systems from Moscow in the coming months and years, given the sweeping financial sanctions that the administration with the support of Congress has levelled on Russia, the Russian banking system,” said Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu at the hearing, which took place hours after the vote in the General Assembly on “Russian aggression”, from which India abstained.

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He said that the US Secretary of State had been “in the frontline” of a “pitched battle” to get India on the same page as the US on the Ukraine issue, and that there had been an “evolution” in India’s position, and “in addition we are asking India to do more”.

US Senator Chris Murphy (Democrat), Chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia and Counterterrorism, held the sub-committee hearing with Senator Todd Young (Republican), Ranking Member of the subcommittee, on US policy towards India. The 90-minute hearing was a 360-degree examination of the relationship. Apart from the Ukraine issue, India-China tensions and the Quad were touched upon, as well as questions about India’s democracy, its freedoms, the use of NSO surveillance software on Rahul Gandhi, Kashmir, relations with Pakistan and the feasibility of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise to come up with 500 gigwatts of clean energy by 2030.

Asked specifically if in view of India’s abstentions in the UN in votes against Russia the Biden administration was considering invoking CATSA sanctions on Delhi for purchasing the S-400, Lu said, “What I can say is that India is a really important security partner of ours now. Yeah. And that we value moving forward in that partnership. And I hope that part of what happens with the extreme criticism that Russia has faced, is that India will find it’s now time to further distances.”

He said India had “just the last few weeks”, cancelled MiG 29 orders, Russian helicopter orders and anti-tank weapon orders.

“If you don’t own a banking system, it’s very hard for other countries to pay millions of dollars in rubles, yen or in euros to pay for these defence systems. So I do think many countries that have this legacy, Russian systems will be worried–not only worried about buying new fancy systems like the S-400, but worried just about ammunition, spare parts of basic supplies for Russian legacy systems that they already have, I would guess that India is one of those countries worried about that,” Lu said, also describing it as an “opportunity” for the United States and Europe and others that that produce advanced defence technology “to go after new markets” for defence sales.

“I would think if I was a consumer right now of Russian technology, I would want to make sure that I have diversity, because we will see a problem for Russia’s customers in securing reliable suppliers,” Lu said in response to questions from Committee members.

India’s record of abstention and “non-alignment” at the United Nations on the Ukraine issue dominated the hearing, with the committee members questioning Lu repeatedly about how this squared up with the US-India partnership and India’s own credentials as the world’s largest democracy.

Lu said there was a “pitched battle” on the issue with India, and that it had led to an “evolution” of the Indian position.

“Secretary Blinken has been on the frontlines of that battle. The President, other senior officials in the State Department have been relentlessly conducting very serious high-level dialogue with their Indian counterparts over Ukraine over the over the course of months now,” Lu, who was posted as a political officer in the US Embassy in Delhi a decade ago, said.

The death of the Indian student in the bombardment of Kharkiv had also begun to turn public opinion in India against Russia.

“Let me say that all of us have been working to urge India to take a clear position, a position opposed to Russia’s actions. But what have we seen so far, we’ve seen a number of abstentions,” he said, noting an “interesting evolution” in India’s decision to send humanitarian supplies to Ukraine at that country’s request. He also noted India’s call to all states to abide by the UN Charter, respect sovereignty and the territorial integrity of other states.

“That wasn’t criticism of Russia, but a very clear reference to Russia’s violation of the UN Charter, in violation of Ukrainian sovereignty. So we’re making small steps. I assure you, we are on this and working every day to make sure that we are trying to close the gap between where we are and where our Indian partners are,” Lu said.

“We have spared no effort to try to convince India both to vote in UN sessions and also to show support for Ukraine at this critical moment. Those efforts were led by Secretary Blinken. He has for multiple, multiple times been on the phone with Minister Jaishanker,” the official said.

He also said that the US was trying to use India’s leverage with Russia to call for a ceasefire. “In our outreach to India, we have not failed to try to leverage India’s relationship with Russia to try to call for a Russian withdraw and see ceasefire…In the days immediately following the Russian invasion, we have been in touch with Indian leaders and Prime Minister Modi called both President Putin and President Zelensky to call for an end to the fighting,” Lu said.

Lu said India’s explanation for its abstentions, both publicly and in private to US interlocutors, were intended to leave on the table the possibility of a diplomatic resolution of this conflict, as well as the safety of the thousands of Indian students in Ukraine.