Op-Ed: It’s Time For India To Stop Appeasing Putin
“India’s stand at the UN and its subsequent position on Ukraine has earned ringing praise from Kremlin.”
This is from Legal Insurrection contributor Vijeta Uniyal writing at the Kyiv Post:
It’s Time For India To Stop Appeasing Putin
The Putin regime poses an existential threat to world peace and global prosperity.
Indians of my parent’s generation reverently remember President John F. Kennedy for coming to India’s aid in ending China’s military offensive of 1962. To deter Beijing from escalating the conflict along the shared 1,800-mile border, President Kennedy dispatched a carrier battle group to the Bay of Bengal, signalling U.S. and Western support for embattled Indians.
Today, as the Ukrainian military and enlisted civilians mount heroic resistance to invading Russian forces, New Delhi has failed to take a similarly principled stance. India’s official position on the Russian invasion of Ukraine mirrors that of China.
On February 25 India, along with China and The United Arab Emirates, abstained from the United Nations Security Council resolution that sought an immediate stop to the Russian invasion. Moscow blocked the resolution, which was backed by 11 of the council’s 15 members. India’s stand at the UN and its subsequent position on Ukraine has earned ringing praise from Kremlin.
Indian foreign policy experts and media commentators have justified New Delhi’s approach by citing the country’s dependence on Russian arms supplies, and the prospect of precuring cheap Russian oil and gas in the wake of the latest U.S. and Western sanctions.
Defense estimates suggest that around 60 percent of India’s military equipment comes from Russia. In energy consumption, it’s a different picture, where the Russian crude oil amounts to roughly 2 percent of total imports.
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Comments
India isn’t appeasing Putin it has interests that are not American interests.
The West does not like India’s current government and has attacked it on multiple occasions. It has also shown a willingness to make western currency worthless to those receiving it. It has also made it very clear that it does believe in using the power it wields to force cultural change on people.
The point of departure to make India trust the West enough to go all in against Putin instead of fearing “I’m next” is at least the reaction to the election of Modi, and much more likely however it is the invasion of Iraq (a conflict that was purely a crusade by GWB to turn Iraq into California).
Going by prudence instead of cultural imperialism today would likely mean Iraq not being aligned with Iran, and India being much more likely to countenance joining an anti-Russian group of nations.
Calling it “appeasement” isn’t prudent, it is ignoring India’s perspective. Biden is not someone they could trust very much, and has reasons not to help out.
The US can’t expect loyalty unless it shows loyalty.
We’ve just gotten done proving to the people of Afghanistan and Ukraine that American promises mean nothing. Not that we’re bothering to give India even promises.
JFK is long gone, and Biden is definitely not him.
India is on its own, and they know it.
Sorry if I misunderstood you but they aren’t staying out of it because of some kind of fear of Russia, they just don’t have any national interests for helping the western powers while they do have national interests for not doing it.