New Delhi: US Deputy National Security Advisor Daleep Singh’s remarks during his recent visit to India amid the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict raised many eyebrows with several political analysts and ex-bureaucrats calling it a threat and an example of coercive diplomacy.

Singh had also warned India over its procurement of Russian oil saying the US does not want to see a rapid acceleration in India’s imports from Russia of energy and other commodities prohibited by global sanctions regimes.

Responding to these threats, India’s former permanent representative to the United Nations Syed Akbaruddin said it was not a language of diplomacy but coercion.

Similarly, reacting to Daleep Singh’s “if China breaches the LAC, Russia wouldn’t come running to India’s defense” remark, noted geostrategist Brahma Chellaney said that China has been waging border aggression against India for 23 months by breaching the LAC, but US President Joe Biden refused to open his mouth on that issue.

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Here’s everything you need to know about Daleep Singh

Daleep Singh is an American economic advisor who is currently serving as Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics in the Biden administration.

One of the key architects of the sanctions that the US imposed on Russia after the Kremlin launched its special operation in Ukraine; Singh was born in Maryland and raised in North Carolina to a Sikh family.

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He is the great grand-nephew of Dalip Singh Saund – the first Asian American elected to Congress.

During Obama’s tenure, he served as deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for international affairs and acting assistant secretary of the Treasury for financial markets.

Daleep has also worked for Goldman Sachs and before joining the Biden administration, he was the Executive Vice President and Head of the Markets Group at the New York Federal Reserve.

According to a report by ‘The New Yorker’, it was Singh who identified that the Russian economy was dependent on Western technologies and Russian banks were dependent on overseas capital.

This helped him in coordinating sanctions on Russia’s central bank.

America and coercive diplomacy

Coercion is an important tool of statecraft and the United States is good at using it.

In their book ‘The United States and Coercive Diplomacy’ Robert J. Art and Patrick M. Cronin call coercive diplomacy “an attractive strategy as it offers the possibility of achieving one’s objective economically with little if any bloodshed”.

However, the US and the West must realize that India is not a client state, is not a part of any Western alliance system and is certainly not obliged in any way to toe their collective agenda.

‘I will put my energy security and my country’s interest first’

On Friday, New Delhi made it clear that it will always look for “good deals” for its energy requirement with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar calling out the Western hypocrisy in the presence of British Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss.

Jaishankar pointed out that Europe has been a major buyer of Russian oil and gas even after the crisis in Ukraine unfolded.

“When the oil prices go up, I think it is natural for countries to go out into the market and look for what are the good deals for their people,” Jaishankar said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also defended the purchase of cheap oil saying she will always put energy security and her country’s interest first.

If supply is available at a discount, why I shouldn’t buy it, she said.

The US needs to realize that India has its own independent policy and is absolutely free to pursue its own interests.