Senior Biden administration officials are frustrated that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow as President Biden was kicking off a major NATO summit in Washington this week, underscoring the challenges the United States faces in a relationship it considers one of its most consequential, Washington Post reports on Friday.

The Moscow meeting came despite concerns conveyed to New Delhi by several senior administration officials earlier this month that the timing would complicate the “optics” for Washington, according to several U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

Among those officials was Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, who spoke with Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra in early July in hopes that the Modi-Putin encounter might be rescheduled to avoid coinciding with this week’s summit, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive conversations. The summit is commemorating the 75th anniversary of the alliance’s founding, and its members are seeking to signal strong support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s aggression.

Despite U.S. reservations, Modi arrived Monday in Moscow and embraced Putin in a warm bear hug — an image that was criticized by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — just hours after Russian bombs killed several dozen people in strikes across Ukraine, including at a children’s hospital in Kyiv. Modi called Putin “my dear friend.”

The episode highlights the complexities for the Biden administration as it seeks to deepen its strategic relationship with a rising Asian power that is willing to partner with the United States against China — but is also determined to remain independent of Washington and maintain ties with Moscow.

This week, there was broad concern within the Biden administration about the meeting and its timing, the people said. The optics were “terrible,” said one official. “Deeply inappropriate,” said another. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Monday, “We have made quite clear directly with India our concerns about their relationship with Russia.”

At a news conference Thursday in New Delhi, US Ambassador Eric Garcetti offered a veiled criticism of the Moscow meeting and warned India that it should not take the US friendship 'for granted'. “I’ll have to fight a lot of defensive battles trying to help this relationship ahead,” he said. “I respect that India likes its strategic autonomy. But in times of conflict, there is no such thing as strategic autonomy.”

The Indian Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Indian officials say they are deeply concerned about the growing closeness between Beijing and Moscow and contend that their diplomacy with Moscow acts as a brake on unbridled cooperation. They say they have no choice but to cultivate ties with both the United States and Russia and balance the two relationships.