India and the war in Europe

The Quad is subtly showing that it understands where India's coming from

Claire—Today in the magazine, Vivek looks at India’s carefully-calibrated stance on the war in Europe, explaining why India has been reluctant to alienate Russia. (It’s the arms sales, stupid.) But he sees encouraging signals from the other members of the Quad. They’ve been meeting with India’s Modi this past week, sending both subtle and unsubtle messages. The Quad sees India’s security concerns not only as legitimate, but shared: The common focus of the Quad is China, as the Australian prime minster affirmed, and to counter this threat more effectively, India’s partners are willing to be patient and to take steps to help India reduce its dependence on Russian arms and technology.

India’s carefully calibrated stance on the Russia-Ukraine war has evoked global disparagement. India’s strengths and weaknesses have never been in sharper focus.

India abstained from voting against Russia at the United Nations, though it repeatedly called for respecting the sovereignty and the integrity of national borders and ending hostilities. Speaking to the Indian Parliament last week, Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar stopped short of using the word war. His laconic description: “A tense situation between Russia and Ukraine erupted into conflict on 24 February 2022.” India meanwhile bought substantial amounts of crude oil from Russia despite the rising global clamor to boycott Russian oil and gas.

“Something’s cooking in the Indo-Pacific,” Vivek writes, and it sure sounds as if that’s true.

READ THE REST, HERE

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