India needs friends in Moscow to explain its neutral position to Russians

Being neutral is an art. That’s because, at least in the case of Russia these days, your friends’ neutrality is not enough when your country is at war, you want your friends to speak out, and support you verbally and loudly. So India needs people who may patiently explain to the Russian public that, in fact, a friend does not necessarily have to say things, sometimes it is enough to keep silent - and to do things, instead. This week Russia’s ambassador to Delhi, Denis Alipov, has played exactly such role of a patient friend, explaining to the Russian public that the 3.4-fold growth of our trade turnover last year says it all. His interview has immediately become a welcome sensation, quoted by most of the Russian media. To repeat, the turnover has grown 3.4 times in 11 months of 2022, reaching $35 billion. That never happened in our history, in spite of numerous high-level statements by our two leaders about the need to beef up trade. The figure of $35 billion was supposed to be reached only by 2025, according to the mentioned statements. Was it the war that brought the welcome change, or was it something else? Still, the public of my country mostly clings to loud statements, not trading figures. But, at least, what the Russian public probably knows by now is that the West is doing its best to push India out of its neutral position. It has been widely quoted that the US has been pressing your government to join the anti-Russian coalition, whatever it is. Ambassador Alipov has mentioned that in his interview. But there was also a statement by retired Vice Admiral NN Kumar, currently the top advisor to the general director of BrahMos Airspace. The West is trying to apply pressure, so as to make India stop cooperating with Russia in the defence sector, says the admiral. But the West has not succeeded, and one may say clearly that it will not succeed with today’s leadership of India, he adds. He also says that the BrahMos hypersonic missile is a game-changer in the region, being almost invulnerable for missile defence. And, yes, since it’s a joint project, the Russian army is likely to get a totally new BrahMos, too. That statement was made, this month, by Atul Dinkar, CEO of BrahMos. Though it looks like that will not happen soon, so the war in Ukraine will be over by that time. That’s security. But let’s get back to the sensational growth of Indo-Russian trade up to the figure of $35 billion dollars. Out of the total figure, $32 billion is from the Indian purchase of Russian oil, coal, fertilizers and metals. It appears that Russia has got itself in the year 2022 to the second slot among oil exporters to India, next after Iraq. To remind you, Moscow had a 0.2 per cent share of your oil supplies only a year ago, while now it’s close to 20 per cent. All that may lead to big changes in the world economy. We don’t know how China will perform in 2023, but International Monetary Fund predicts that about half of global economic growth this year may be attributed to India and South Asia in general, while the West combined may only account for 10 per cent. These were the figures quoted by Igor Sechin, head of Rosneft (Russian Oil state company), attending recently Indian energy week in Delhi. Needless to say, that prospect bases itself on guaranteed supplies of energy on the previous terms. If Sechin and IMF are right, the overall picture of the future world looks interesting. On the surface, the world has got mad, blasting this or that with foam at too many mouths. The West, Russia and China are the leaders in that regard. Most of my working hours consist of following that barrage of accusations from all sides, and I only try to interpose my feeble “that’s crazy” into that stream of fury. And all that time India was keeping its neutrality in the discussion, while quietly building up steam for not a Big Leap Forward (borrowing from the Chinese communist slogan of 1959), but for a slow and powerful surge to a new position in global affairs and economy. It looks like India may repeat Germany’s miracle of the early 2000s, when, basing its industries on cheap and guaranteed supplies of Russian gas, Germany became a European and global powerhouse. We all know that the current developments are somewhat similar to the Third World War, the only thing is, you do not need to raise millions of soldiers to achieve a typical world war result, that is, a change of global leaders. The Second World war was a direct battle of several big powers of the time, while the main result was the change of superpowers, to the US from the British Empire (and who cared that they were allies in the hostilities). The next leap in the world’s history was about avoiding direct confrontation with the giants and mutually testing weapons and skills in some unlucky countries like Vietnam or Angola. The current use of Ukraine as a proxy of the West in the ongoing war is a leftover of that era, just like a similar possible future role of Taiwan against China. While it’s in the realm of ideas where the main battle is evolving, and in forceful attempts to change the values and lifestyles of hundreds of millions of people. And all that time there have been big and small nations, doing their utmost to keep away from that madness, with mixed results. Will Russia like a world where dominating power will be neither the US, nor China, but its old friend India? My answer is – yes, if India will not dominate, will not order nations and people around, but will quietly ascertain all people’s rights to choose their paths. And that’s why my compatriots have every right and all the need to understand exactly what India’s current neutrality means and why it’s good for us. The author is a columnist for the Russian State agency website ria.ru, as well as for other publications. Views expressed are personal. Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.