Nagpur: There are not always two sides to the story. There are maybe three or four. Today amid the Russia Ukraine crisis, the third side is of the countries which are not involved in the war. For example, India. Even though the majority of the countries have chosen their sides, India still seems to be walking on diplomatic tight rope.
Before we understand why India has not chosen its side, we need to understand what happened in the key UNSC meeting on Sunday.
The UNSC has in total 15 members. India abstained from voting for or against support of Ukraine. The UNSC required 9 votes for the discussion to take place, but they received 10 votes in support of Ukraine. In simpler terms, 10 countries wanted to have a discussion over the Russian invasion in Ukraine, meanwhile, 2 countries—Russia and China did not want to have a discussion over it.
India’s ambassador to the United Nations, TS Tirumurti, said that dialogue was the only way to resolve disputes. He also said that the country was “deeply disturbed” by the recent turn of developments and called for an immediate stop to violence.
In the meeting, Tirumurti said that there are around 20,000 Indian nationals living in Ukraine and their safety was their top most priority in India amid the crisis.
However, when the whole world has been asking India to take a firm stand on the issue, Russia welcomed India’s decision of not choosing sides.
As per a tweet by a Russian diplomat, he supported India for not supporting the American hand twisting. India is stuck in a place due to strategic partnerships in both the countries.
Here are the possible reasons why India is being neutral in Russia-Ukraine crisis:
1.Russia is one of the biggest arm suppliers to India and also a key strategic ally. Over 50 per cent of India’s arms imports between 2016 to 2020 were from Russia itself.
- India operates 272 Su 30 fighter jets which are made in Russia. It has eight Russian-made kilo class submarines and over 1,300 Russian t-90 tanks.
- India has been firm on purchasing the S-400 air defence system. India signed a $5 billion deal with Russia in 2018 to buy the missile system.
- As per the officials, Russia has stood by India at the UN security council on almost all issues.
The United States has also been pressurizing India to commit to a stronger response against Russia. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Thursday told foreign minister S Jaishankar the importance of a ‘strong collective response’ to condemn what America called Russia’s ‘premeditated, unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine.’
