How Is India’s Silent Diplomacy Navigating the Russia-Ukraine War?
Jagannath P. Panda
Introduction:
The ongoing war in Ukraine has diverted the world’s attention to Eurasian politics, for the moment eclipsing the ever-volatile Indo-Pacific. The situation is extremely vulnerable in Ukraine, with essential supplies and services disrupted and thousands fleeing, as the Russian advance becomes more “brutal” and Russian nuclear forces are reportedly on high alert. The scale of displacement is “one of the biggest” within Europe since the Balkan wars. Yet there is no end in sight at the moment, though ceasefire talks have begun and the United Nations has raised about $1.5 billion for emergency humanitarian assistance.
The U.N. General Assembly’s 11th emergency session adopted a resolution demanding that Russia immediately end its invasion of Ukraine and unconditionally withdraw all its military forces. However, the measure seemed more symbolic than effective. The Asian powers, India and China, again chose to abstain: China’s official view takes into account “the history and complexity of the current crisis” and “the principle of indivisible security,” at the heart of which lie the eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and similar crises in its own backyard.
India’s “Explanation of Vote,” on the other hand, rests on “the totality of the evolving situation,” and said that the nation’s biggest priority is the evacuation of the stranded Indian nationals. At the same time, India has reiterated its “commitment to the principles of the U.N. Charter, to international law and respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states” and dispatched relief and medical supplies to war-hit Ukraine.
Related Publications
-
Abandoning Neutrality, Absorbing Multipolarity: India and Sweden by 2047
Pragmatism and polarised positioning have become the new normal in foreign policy decision making – and Sweden and India are no exception. Sweden moved away from and perhaps permanently abandoned […]
-
India-Sweden Strategic Compass, Vol. 2, No. 5
India-Sweden ties have continued to prosper this year as the two states celebrated 75 years of the establishment of diplomatic relations with increased interactions and visits by high-level officials from […]
-
South Korea as a Nuclear State: Trade-Offs and Choices
South Korea’s launch of its own Indo-Pacific strategy in December 2022 started the country’s ascent into “strategic clarity” for the US-led Indo-Pacific construct, winning favor with Washington for this policy […]
-
India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor: Will It Get Subsumed by Its Grand Vision?
The recently concluded Group of Twenty (G20) Summit in New Delhi under India’s presidency was, undoubtedly, a crowning moment for India. From providing the G20 with new relevance among the […]
-
China’s Decision-making and the Border Dispute with India
What factors have prevented the PRC and India from moving past the stalemate over the LAC and reaching a sustainable solution to the border conflict? Looking at the PRC’s decision-making […]
-
The French Connection: India-France Partnership for the Indo-Pacific Zeitgeist
India’s bilateral relationship with France has been a robust one, and a test case for maintaining a distinct trajectory of its own allowing enough elbow room to both countries to […]