Nato's door open for more engagement with India: US

NEW DELHI: Nato's door is open for more engagement with India should the government seek it, US permanent representative to the North Atlantic military alliance Julianne Smith said on Friday.
Smith, however, ruled out an invite to India for the Nato ministerial meeting in Brussels next week, saying the alliance would first like to know more about India's interest in engaging it "more broadly".
The Indian government had last year said it had been in touch with Nato as a part of its initiative to engage with stakeholders on global issues of mutual interests. The informal meeting in March 2023 though was possibly the first on Indian soil and came in the middle of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Unlike the treaty allies of the US like Japan, South Korea and Australia, India has reservations about working with Nato but realises perhaps there's potential to work with the organisation without getting involved in any military cooperation. Smith said Nato didn't in the past have a particularly rich agenda with countries in the Indo-Pacific but in recent years, the alliance had started to mention the region in some of its strategic documents and also recognised the importance of focusing on China as a systemic challenge.
"There has been some informal exchanges between Nato officials and Indian representatives on the margins of the Raisina Dialogue in March this year and it has certainly opened up the conversation a little bit. But certainly, the Nato alliance is open to more engagement should India seek that," said Smith.
She ruled out any expansion of Nato - which has been working closely with countries like Japan, Australia and South Korea and New Zealand in Indo-Pacific - to include India. "We haven't considered membership for anyone in Indo-Pacific. Nato remains a Euro-Atlantic military alliance and there's no plan to expand it into a broader, global alliance," she said.
Smith also thanked India for the humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and for the call for an immediate end to the war in Ukraine. On concerns in India about Russia's growing proximity with China, Smith admitted that their relationship had evolved, and that the US had been disheartened by China's political support to Russia. She said the US had been very clear in warning China about the risks of providing any sort of material support to Russia in its war against Ukraine but added there was no indication so far of Russia using tactical nukes in Ukraine.