Diplomacy is an art. It is a way of being nice in one’s dealings with others and yet managing to get what one wants. Diplomacy helps in thrashing out vexed issues with a smile. India’s relations with Russia after the start of the Ukraine war are a case in point. While seemingly adopting a neutral stand, feelings strengthened that the Modi government chose to side with a war-monger. The deal India fixed with Russia to buy its fuel in the context of the sanctions that Moscow faced from the West, helped India get oil at cheap rates while it helped Russia withstand the western economic pressure.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Ukraine came a while after his visit to Moscow. The claim that India can mediate and help end the long-run war Russia started with Ukraine is unfounded. Yet, it is important for India to have a line with both Ukraine and Russia. An inference could be that India is neither a friend nor a foe, but is only aiming to promote its own interests. Therein lies the rub. Modi stated in Kiev that he came to Ukraine with a “message of peace” from the 1.4 billon Indians, and stressed that “India is not neutral in this war, but is on the side of Peace.” It cut no ice with President Volodymyr Zelensky, who noted that Russia bombed a children’s hospital at the precise time when Modi was hugging Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Zelensky’s take was that this also amounted to a Russian insult to India. Zelensky’s grim face all through his meetings with Modi displayed his struggle within. Also, in the context of the oil deal, it may not be easy to sell the proposition of India being on the side of peace, as it was Russia that started this war.
When it comes to foreign policy, the fact is that India never had a firm foreign policy. While Jawaharlal Nehru stood in the forefront of the now-defunct Non-Aligned Movement, it was clear to all that NAM’s alignment was with the Soviet Union set against the US during the Cold War phase. The US hence looked at India with suspicion, if not contempt. It was from the 1990s that, under Narasimha Rao, India started strengthening its ties with the US. By then, the Soviet Union had disintegrated and the Cold War era ended. China’s Xi Jinping described India as a “beauty” seeking to “woo one and all.” We are neither here, nor there. Since the US found India undependable during the Nehru era, it patronised Pakistan and fed it with sophisticated weapons to “defend itself” against India. Even today, despite terrorism being a fly in the ointment, the US keeps supplying modern weapons to Pakistan.
