US President Joe Biden held a virtual meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, immediately after which US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin held talks in Washington with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh.

The head of the Indian defense department then remained in America until the end of this week, continuing the marathon of meetings and negotiations with the leadership of the aerospace and defense corporations Boeing, Raytheon and other captains of the American military-industrial complex, and also visited the headquarters of the US Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii.

In general, Washington seriously took up India, trying to deprive it of its strategic autonomy.

The main principle of Delhi's foreign policy, which from the first days of Indian independence was based on non-participation in the alliances of East and West, which allowed the country to pursue a sovereign policy and not be friends with someone against someone.

It must be said that from the first days of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, the United States has been conducting its own military-political special operation to tame the Indian elephant, which cannot be trained through promises and threats.

The elephant rests and does not want to keep up with the leading democracies of the world, which are involved in the war of sanctions with Russia.

However, this further inflames his trainers, who understand the huge price of the issue.

If India, which together with China has become the main asset of Russian politics in the era of a new confrontation with the West, suddenly recoils from Moscow, then this will be a strong blow to the Russian turn to the East, the search for alternative markets, investors and business partners.

Despite the fact that the processing of India has not been going on for the first week, and a whole army of experts, journalists and political PR people have joined this work, leading their offensive in the vast Indian information space, the general battle for India has entered a decisive phase this week.

The first salvo was fired personally by President Biden.

More recently, at a meeting with Western allies, complaining that India's position on the Ukrainian crisis "remains somewhat shaky", the US President, during his conversation with Narendra Modi, again urged him to toughen his approach to Russia.

In fact, the US president invented everything - India's position has never been "shaky".

On the contrary, on the issue of relations with Russia, she was firm and consistent from the very beginning.

However, Joe Biden first convinced himself and his Western allies that India was hesitant, and then began to ensure that these non-existent hesitation led to a qualitative shift in New Delhi's position on the Ukraine crisis.

“At the heart of our partnership is the deep bond between our peoples, the bonds of family, friendship and shared values,” Joe Biden told Narendra Modi, inviting him to “continue close consultations on how to deal with the destabilizing effects of the Russian war.”

As White House press secretary Jen Psaki explained, Joe Biden strongly recommended Narendra Modi to abandon energy cooperation with Russia.

“We do not think that India should speed up imports of Russian energy, and the US is ready to support India, continue negotiations on diversifying its imports,” Jen Psaki said, according to whom “the president has made it very clear that increasing cooperation with Russia is not in the interests India".

After that, at a final press conference with Indian Foreign Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Secretary of State Blinken called on the Indian side to agree that the golden age of Russian-Indian friendship (remember, "Hindi-Rusi - bhai-bhai") is a historical an anachronism that should have no place in the 21st century.

“Relations between India and Russia have been developing for decades when the United States could not be India's partners.

But times have changed, now we can and want to be India's chosen partners in all areas - trade, technology, education, security," Anthony Blinken said, recalling that the trade between India and the United States already exceeds $150 billion.

The US Secretary of State also urged India to "avoid major new deals to acquire Russian weapons systems, especially in light of what Russia is doing regarding Ukraine."

After that, another participant in the press conference, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, said that the Pentagon "is actively negotiating with India on how best to support its needs for military modernization" and "make our weapons systems more accessible to India."

However, this time the Indian elephant did not budge.

Responding to questions from journalists who pressed on him, Foreign Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar resolutely stopped attempts to re-raise the question of when his country would turn its back on Russia.

“We are following what is happening, like any other country.

We make our own conclusions and assessments.

And believe me, we have a sufficient understanding of what is in our interests, how to protect and promote them,” the Indian Foreign Minister told a Japanese journalist, adding that he did not need “unsolicited recommendations.”

When asked by an American correspondent of the Al Jazeera TV channel why India does not condemn Russia's actions in Ukraine, the Indian minister replied: "Thank you for the advice and suggestions, but I prefer to do it my way and formulate it my way."

All in all, the new round of US-India meetings and talks showed that among the states not participating in the war of sanctions against Russia, India remains the only country developing an ever closer global strategic partnership with the US and at the same time able to continue to say “no” to Washington.

Thinking about this phenomenon of Indian foreign policy, it would still be wrong to reduce it solely to the principle of strategic autonomy.

Today, few people remember that in the 1990s, India itself was the object of very painful American and Western sanctions because of its refusal to join the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT).

Then the country, which the West tried to cut off oxygen and deprive it of high technologies, withstood (largely due to cooperation with Russia, which did not join the sanctions and advocated their abolition).

In addition, Narendra Modi himself, who came to power in 2014, was under US and European sanctions for many years.

Recall that in 2002, when he was still the chief minister of the state of Gujarat, bloody clashes between Hindus and Muslims took place in Gujarat, in which the West then blamed the future prime minister.

In this regard, until 2014, Modi, who is now accepted in the United States as an honored guest, was not allowed to enter America.

Similar sanctions against him, which were in effect until the end of 2012, were introduced by the European Union.

Of course, Narendra Modi has not forgotten anything and draws his lessons from history.

So President Biden (as well as his future successors) is unlikely to be able to tame an Indian elephant.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.