From our Leader (Indian Newslink Digital Edition July 15, 2024)
Venkat Raman
During his meeting with India’s External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Moscow on December 27, 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “I ask you to give him (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) my best wishes and please tell him that we are waiting for him in Russia, although I know that next year he will have a busy political schedule.”
Mr Putin meant the General Election but he was unlikely to have any misgivings of Mr Modi’s visit to Russia. For, apart from a long-standing relationship that dates back to the reign of Indira Gandhi when a Security Pact was signed, New Delhi’s friendship with Moscow has been growing.
America and Europe frown
Bilateral trade between the two countries reached a high of US$ 65.70 billion during the financial year ending March 2024, with India’s imports from that country standing at US$ 61.44 billion, accounted by oil and petroleum products, fertilizers, mineral resources, precious stones and metals, vegetable oils and other products. Its exports are mainly iron and steel, pharmaceutical, and organic chemical products, in addition to electronic machinery.
Mr Modi’s visit raised several eyebrows, especially in Washington DC where the Annual Summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was being held. The US Administration also frowned upon the visit, with State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller saying that the Indian Prime Minister should underline the territorial integrity of Ukraine and tell his friend Mr Putin to respect the UN Charter.
The UN Charter has highlighted the territorial integrity of Ukraine, with which Russia has engaged in conflict since its invasion on February 24, 2022.
Zelensky reacts strongly
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was more vocal.
“In Ukraine today, 37 people were killed, three of whom were children and 170 were injured, including 13 children, as a result of Russia’s brutal missile strike. It is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the Leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day,” he said in a tweet that he posted on X on July 8, 2024.
Mr Modi told President Putin that India was ready to offer any assistance in establishing peace in Ukraine. Russian state TV quoted him as saying that war was “not a solution.”
He said that the death of children was painful and terrifying, a day after the deadly attack on the Kyiv children’s hospital.
“Whether it is war, conflict or a terrorist attack, any person who believes in humanity, is pained when there is loss of lives. But even in that, when innocent children are killed, the heart bleeds and that pain is very terrifying,” he said.
Diversifying India-Russia Relations
Following his meeting with Mr Putin on July 9, 2024, Mr Modi tweeted, “Held productive discussions with President Putin at the Kremlin today. Our talks covered ways to diversify India-Russia cooperation in sectors such as trade, commerce, security, agriculture, technology and innovation. We attach great importance to boosting connectivity and people-to-people exchanges.”
Mr Modi was aware that his visit to Russia would draw international flak but it was obvious that he was sending a strong message: that India will charter its own course, choose its own friends and determine its own destiny. Over the past five years (since he became the External Affairs Minister in Mr Modi’s second term in office), Dr Jaishankar has on many occasions taken cudgels against Europe and the United States of America saying that both continents must mend their outlook towards India. Mr Putin now appears to have set India as a partner in reshaping the Western-dominated Global Order.
India and Canada have been falling apart since Justin Trudeau became the Prime Minister in 2015.
That is another story.
