 "How India is best positioned to resolve Ukraine war")
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Foreign Minister Jaishankar’s invitation to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to visit India for dialogue seem to be part of the efforts towards ending the war in Ukraine.
The prolonged war in Ukraine has severely dislocated the global political economy, causing colossal hardship for the Global South. The United States and its European allies have systematically backed Ukraine in the war, and China has stood rock-solid behind Russia. The war is actually not between Russia and Ukraine. It has become the hottest spot of the ravaging new kind of proxy war reminiscent of the Cold War years.
Throughout the Cold War years, India refused to be part of any bloc politics or alliance formations and adopted a non-aligned strategy in its foreign policy. While both Washington and Moscow desired Indian support for their policies and both mistrusted non-alignment to varying degrees, India neither maintained equidistance from them nor stayed away from involvement in international affairs. India sought friendship and cooperation with all while maintaining its opposition to divisive alliance politics.
It is because of this Indian normative stand on global issues that India managed to have closer strategic ties with the former Soviet Union for national security purposes and pursue deeper trade, investment, educational, and cultural relations with the US. Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, India has consistently bolstered its strategic partnership with the US, and, significantly, India has also preserved its defence and security ties with Russia. New Delhi does not see its relations with the US and Russia in zero-sum lance.
As a new kind of geopolitical race has been unleashed between Russia and the United States for the last several years, culminating in the Ukraine War, Washington for sure has expected and attempted to keep India on its side and reduce India’s reliance on Russia on arms and weapons. India has allowed entry of American defence articles into its arms market but has continued to maintain and service Russian-origin arsenals.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsRussia was concerned over its shrinking space in India’s arms market and rising share of the United States in it, yet it continued to conserve its defence deals with India, including selling state-of-the-art missiles and aircraft.
In other words, India’s approach to geopolitics rises above partisanship between adversaries. This approach is apt for promoting peace and reducing conflict, and there are examples of acceptance by warring parties of the Indian role during the Korean War in the early 1950s and the Indo-China conflict during the later half of the same decade.
Respect for Indian diplomacy is not confined to major powers alone. India today upholds positive and cordial ties with Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Egypt and simultaneously seeks to play the role of the voice of the Global South. India is now well known as a bridge between the developed North and the developing Global South.
It was India’s skillful diplomacy that led to the entry of the African Union into the G20, and now, like the European Union, the African Union is a full member of the G20.
It is significant to underline that India’s membership in BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is crucial to keeping these bodies from turning into anti-Western mechanisms, and India’s membership in QUAD ensures that it does not become a forum to contain China and create an Asian NATO.
India is thus in a paramount position to act as a central peacemaker in Eurasia and try to end the war in Ukraine. India has robust relations with the US, the EU, and Russia at the same time. India has not condemned Russia for invading Ukraine. India has not resisted the US sanctions against Russia. India has provided humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. India has helped address the food crisis generated by the Ukraine War. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s warning that this is not the “era of war” has reverberated across the world; therefore, there is no country better suited to play the role of the key peacemaker.
It appears that there is snowballing aid fatigue in the US, mounting war weariness in Russia, unending loss of lives and property in Ukraine, and persistent energy shortages in Europe. At this time, India should step in and assume the leadership role to diplomatically push for resolving the conflict and beginning reconstruction.
Evidently, PM Modi has already taken the first step in this regard by speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Jaishankar is taking action by inviting Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to India for direct dialogue.
It can be assumed that back-channel negotiations are also going on to address this issue. While Ukraine intends to convene a global meeting to discuss this issue with certain concrete suggestions and seeks India’s support, Russian participation in any discussion is equally important. If Russia alone tries to convene a meeting of similar kind, it will fail without Ukraine’s participation. If China and the US are out of it, any effort to arrive at peace will be infructuous.
If India takes the initiative and invites all interested and affected parties to a peace proposal, intense debate and dialogue may ultimately lead to a solution.
PM Modi said that this is not the “era of war”, and the world listened. If he calls for a faster movement to end the war and arrive at durable peace, the world will certainly appreciate it. As a rising global player with credible leadership in various world affairs, India is best suited to end the geopolitical mess in Eurasia that has affected almost every country and jeopardised the global political economy.
The author is founding chairperson, Kalinga Institute of Indo-Pacific Studies, formerly Professor at JNU. The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.
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