India has become the second largest supplier of limited critical technologies to Russia. This is what US and European officials have said, Bloomberg reported, with the officials emphasizing efforts to stop exports fueling President Vladimir Putin's war machine.
Indian exports to Russia of items such as microchips, circuits and machine tools exceeded $60 million in April and May, about double the previous months of this year, and jumped to $95 million in July. India is surpassed only by China.
According to the officials who commented on the subject, EU envoys received a terse response from their Indian counterparts when the issue was raised. India's Ministry of External Affairs declined to comment.
The figures show that almost a fifth of the technology that goes into Russia's military-industrial complex is supplied by India. They also highlight the difficulties the US and EU face in limiting Russia's ability to go to war with Ukraine.
Exporting most such dual-use items directly to Russia is prohibited, so the country has started buying them from third parties, sometimes subsidiaries of Western firms or networks of middlemen.
A State Department spokesman said the department would convey to Indian government officials the growing US concern over the matter.
The United States and the European Union have focused most of their efforts on a list of technologies that are used in Russian weapons or needed to create them. And while the US and EU are working to limit some transshipment routes for these technologies, such as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, new ones have emerged that include India, Malaysia and Thailand.
India's role in supplying such goods poses an additional challenge as US and EU policymakers want to maintain partnerships with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, even as he maintains ties to Putin. India has also emerged as the biggest buyer of Russian oil despite efforts by allies to curb sales. A key driver of the change is the vast reserves of rupees that Russia has amassed from such oil sales.
India's role as a transshipment point has made it a focus of European Union and US sanctions agencies in recent months. Officials from those nations have visited several times in an attempt to get authorities to crack down on the shipments, and several Indian firms have been subject to Western sanctions.
In July, US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo wrote a letter to senior officials from the Confederation of Indian Industry warning of the risks of sanctions facing Indian companies and banks that do business with Russia's military industrial base .