reedak
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2014
- Messages
- 728
1. India has yet again abstained from a United Nations vote against Russia. This was a historical vote in the UN General Assembly where 141 nations voted for the resolution against Russia, while 35 countries abstained and 5 voted against. It’s clear that no amount of sermonising, nagging or blackmailing will shake India’s firm stand. The clarity is rock solid.
A lot has happened since Russia started its military operation in Ukraine. India has called for an “immediate cessation of violence and hostilities," and has shifted to asserting “the importance of respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations" in diplomatic statements at the UN and in PM Narendra Modi’s phone calls with the leaders of Ukraine’s neighbouring countries. Clearly, India is no fan of President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, but it has also refrained from fulfilling the West’s flaming desire to humiliate Russia.
India’s abstention streak has remained consistent even as pressure mounts from the US-led West to give up its balancing position and join in the isolation of Russia. India, however, has remained unfazed and firm on its stand. It is not going to publicly condemn Russia. It is not going to discount Russia’s security concerns vis-à-vis Nato. And it is definitely not going to jump into the sanctions bogey. Such lucidity on the Indian side has unnerved the West, especially the United States, which at this point, is desperate to be seen as the global messiah that united the world against evil. But, if only things were that simple. They are far from it. India has decided to not encourage the Americans at this juncture....neither is the USA’s European smackdown with Russia moral nor is it far-sighted.
Ukraine is fighting Russia all on its own after being propped up for years by the West, while the attack on Ukraine has united Nato countries which are looking to step up their defence budgets and shed their energy dependence on Russia. Rich nations like Sweden and Finland are considering a Nato membership now more than ever. So it looks like the USA’s longstanding goals in Europe have been met but even that has not warranted a united Nato response against Russia’s invasion. Ukraine is on the verge of losing its entire existence over the risks it confidently took with Western backing. Strategically, for Ukraine’s leadership, it was a bad call to lay it all bare before Russia, idealistically thinking that the West would have their back. Today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s acute idealism has indeed put Europe and the US in a spot when it comes to giving or denying Ukraine a European Union and a Nato membership. But at what cost? If there is no Ukraine, how will these memberships matter? This is Kyiv’s gravest miscalculation and the West played an outrageously irresponsible hand in it— leading Ukraine up the garden path and then deserting it leaving Ukrainian civilians to take up arms to aid their military. It all could have been avoided by realistically weighing the risks of poking the Russian bear in its backyard.
The Biden Administration has been hell-bent on capping Russia’s rise from the ashes. Crippling sanctions have made Russia rely strongly on its defence exports. Apart from that, learning its lesson from the 1990-91 Gulf War, which sent oil prices through the roof and delved a huge blow to the Soviet economy and became the ultimate reason for the USSR’s collapse, Russia has become a powerful energy exporter, walking toe-to-toe and sometimes not with the OPEC. But Russia is far from being a challenge to the United States-led world order. Its $1.6 trillion economy dwarves in comparison with the USA’s nearly $25 trillion dollar economy. The ruble fares pathetically before the dollar. And its population, which is less than half that of the US, is in a steady decline. Russia is not the real challenge anymore....
Despite India’s blooming relations with the west, be it economically, diplomatically or militarily, we are just not there yet when it comes to installing unswerving trust, especially in the United States. And even when we do, we might not be dumping Russia as we’ve been advised to by Western experts....
It is said that $15 billion worth of defence imports from Russia are still in the pipeline for India. Russia’s flagship S-400 Triumf missile system has been purchased by both India and China....In the same period, India sourced almost 50% of all its defence imports from Moscow....A friend in need is a friend indeed— always treading on thin ice economically, Russia strongly enforces this in its diplomatic relations with nations.
No doubt Russia owes India a big one this time. But it is this time-tested relationship that India would not throw away, even for trade-offs....
For India, Russia cannot and should not be antagonised. It is not just about weapons dependency or diplomatic trade-offs, but a far-reaching geopolitical great game of the 21st century.
Source link: https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/opin...-will-faze-indias-ties-with-russia/ar-AAUxCPp
2. How will the US and its allies punish India if it helps Russia cope with the fallout from economic sanctions? Why won’t Australia's Prime Minister Scott John Morrison condemn India for not taking side with the US and Australia in the Ukrainian crisis?
P.S. It is doubtful whether US Vice President Kamala D. Harris (India's "proud daughter" in America) can persuade India to openly condemn Russia for its aggression against Ukraine.
A lot has happened since Russia started its military operation in Ukraine. India has called for an “immediate cessation of violence and hostilities," and has shifted to asserting “the importance of respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations" in diplomatic statements at the UN and in PM Narendra Modi’s phone calls with the leaders of Ukraine’s neighbouring countries. Clearly, India is no fan of President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, but it has also refrained from fulfilling the West’s flaming desire to humiliate Russia.
India’s abstention streak has remained consistent even as pressure mounts from the US-led West to give up its balancing position and join in the isolation of Russia. India, however, has remained unfazed and firm on its stand. It is not going to publicly condemn Russia. It is not going to discount Russia’s security concerns vis-à-vis Nato. And it is definitely not going to jump into the sanctions bogey. Such lucidity on the Indian side has unnerved the West, especially the United States, which at this point, is desperate to be seen as the global messiah that united the world against evil. But, if only things were that simple. They are far from it. India has decided to not encourage the Americans at this juncture....neither is the USA’s European smackdown with Russia moral nor is it far-sighted.
Ukraine is fighting Russia all on its own after being propped up for years by the West, while the attack on Ukraine has united Nato countries which are looking to step up their defence budgets and shed their energy dependence on Russia. Rich nations like Sweden and Finland are considering a Nato membership now more than ever. So it looks like the USA’s longstanding goals in Europe have been met but even that has not warranted a united Nato response against Russia’s invasion. Ukraine is on the verge of losing its entire existence over the risks it confidently took with Western backing. Strategically, for Ukraine’s leadership, it was a bad call to lay it all bare before Russia, idealistically thinking that the West would have their back. Today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s acute idealism has indeed put Europe and the US in a spot when it comes to giving or denying Ukraine a European Union and a Nato membership. But at what cost? If there is no Ukraine, how will these memberships matter? This is Kyiv’s gravest miscalculation and the West played an outrageously irresponsible hand in it— leading Ukraine up the garden path and then deserting it leaving Ukrainian civilians to take up arms to aid their military. It all could have been avoided by realistically weighing the risks of poking the Russian bear in its backyard.
The Biden Administration has been hell-bent on capping Russia’s rise from the ashes. Crippling sanctions have made Russia rely strongly on its defence exports. Apart from that, learning its lesson from the 1990-91 Gulf War, which sent oil prices through the roof and delved a huge blow to the Soviet economy and became the ultimate reason for the USSR’s collapse, Russia has become a powerful energy exporter, walking toe-to-toe and sometimes not with the OPEC. But Russia is far from being a challenge to the United States-led world order. Its $1.6 trillion economy dwarves in comparison with the USA’s nearly $25 trillion dollar economy. The ruble fares pathetically before the dollar. And its population, which is less than half that of the US, is in a steady decline. Russia is not the real challenge anymore....
Despite India’s blooming relations with the west, be it economically, diplomatically or militarily, we are just not there yet when it comes to installing unswerving trust, especially in the United States. And even when we do, we might not be dumping Russia as we’ve been advised to by Western experts....
It is said that $15 billion worth of defence imports from Russia are still in the pipeline for India. Russia’s flagship S-400 Triumf missile system has been purchased by both India and China....In the same period, India sourced almost 50% of all its defence imports from Moscow....A friend in need is a friend indeed— always treading on thin ice economically, Russia strongly enforces this in its diplomatic relations with nations.
No doubt Russia owes India a big one this time. But it is this time-tested relationship that India would not throw away, even for trade-offs....
For India, Russia cannot and should not be antagonised. It is not just about weapons dependency or diplomatic trade-offs, but a far-reaching geopolitical great game of the 21st century.
Source link: https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/opin...-will-faze-indias-ties-with-russia/ar-AAUxCPp
2. How will the US and its allies punish India if it helps Russia cope with the fallout from economic sanctions? Why won’t Australia's Prime Minister Scott John Morrison condemn India for not taking side with the US and Australia in the Ukrainian crisis?
P.S. It is doubtful whether US Vice President Kamala D. Harris (India's "proud daughter" in America) can persuade India to openly condemn Russia for its aggression against Ukraine.
