India's Prudent Diplomacy In Russia-Ukraine War

The world has been witnessing the violent Russia-Ukraine crisis, which has already accelerated quickly putting the lives of numerous civilians under grave threat, alongside killing many. While countries around the world are already looking for the war to end but unfortunately the intensity of the war has seemingly increased with each passing day. Amidst the Russian-Ukraine crisis, India's diplomatic strategies have once again come under the scanner and have been creating headlines in both National and International media.

Many pundits of International Relations, as well as political scholars, are of the opinion that India should take a side (either Russia's or Ukraine's) in order to prevent the war from accelerating, but India has displayed a strong diplomatic character by choosing not to take either side in a situation involving the US-led NATO and Russia. Indian Prime Minister's telephonic talk with the Russian President and India's External Affairs Minister's talk with the Russian Foreign Minister have both highlighted the effort of India to stop the war by taking the path of diplomatic negotiations and dialogues on one hand and a lasting solution for this problem on the other. India's neutral stand on this issue is mainly because all the key protagonists that have been involved in creating a belligerent situation over Ukraine are some of India's close allies. Hence, India is trying to solve this issue by undertaking some well thought diplomatic issues.

India's diplomatic stand in this crisis mainly revolves around its relations with two superpowers, i.e. United States of America and Russia. India and the United States of America, of late, has developed good bilateral ties and both the countries have come together in terms of many activities like fighting the pandemic, taking up actions to address climatic issues, expanding mutual cooperation in terms of trade and investment, including talks on cyber and emerging technological advancements. Most importantly, the USA has been very critical of China's hostile behaviour on India's border and the terror attacks coming to India from Pakistan. In fact, the USA has been constantly supporting India in its emergence as a leading global power and both countries have tried to ensure peace, stability, growth, prosperity and development in the Indo-Pacific region. Along with this, India and the United States of America have also been undertaking a wide range of activities in terms of diplomacy, economics and security issues. The relevance of India and the United States of America's relation has come into the picture mainly because Ukraine wants to be a member of NATO where America is already a member. So, in this regard, if India votes in favour of Russia, it might lose its emerging bilateral relations with the USA. Although Ukraine as of now is not a member of NATO, however, it is a partner country, meaning there might be a possibility of it joining NATO in the near future. Furthermore, according to the principles of NATO, members agree to come into the help of another member country if one member country is attacked by any other foreign country and that is why the United States of America, Britain, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, etc, have already sent military help to Ukraine. This indeed shows that possible support to Russia in regards to the war might hamper India's relations with the NATO countries, including the USA.

In regards to Russia, in recent times, no doubt there has been a divergent geopolitical and strategic drift in the India-Russia relationship with Russia embracing China and Pakistan, both being India's diplomatic foes, but the age-old India-Russia relationship still continues to remain strong. This is evident when we take into consideration that the first face-to-face bilateral meeting of the Russian President since the onset of the pandemic was with the Republic of India. Moreover, Russia has been a significant supplier of military equipment as 65% of India's armed forces equipment is of Russian origin. Along with it, India procured the S-400 Triumf Missile from Russia, despite strong US Opposition. Not to forget the fact that a deal worth over 5000 crore Indian rupees with Russia for the manufacture of AK203 assault rifles is also in the pipeline and there is also speculation about a new ten years defence pact between the two countries. Speaking of economic relations, India-Russia annual trade is also worth about $10 billion. Furthermore, support in favour of Ukraine, will not hamper Indian-Russian ties but might also mean Russia developing stronger ties with China and Pakistan which can be a real-time threat to India's national security.

Moreover, speaking of India and Ukraine relationship, history has shown us that Ukraine has seldom been in support of India. Ukraine has been consistently taking an anti-Indian position in the United Nations, be it in terms of voting against India in UNSC after 1998 nuclear tests, voting for UN intervention in Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 or in terms of selling military equipment to Pakistan to use against India. So in this regard as well, India's diplomatic stand in terms of abstaining support in favour of Ukraine is quite justified.

India's diplomatic stand in the Russia-Ukraine crisis can also be guided by the basic principles of India's Foreign Policy. India is a member of the Non-Alignment Movement (NAM), which states that NAM countries pledge to not formally align with or against any major power bloc, be it the US or the USSR. Also, article 51 under the directive principles of the state policy in the Indian constitution clearly talks of the promotion of international peace and security by maintaining honourable relations between nations and as well as the encouragement of settlement of disputes through arbitration. Added to this, The "Panchasheel", which is said to be the basic framework of India's foreign policy, includes mutual non-aggression, non-interference but mutual benefits. Hence, India has always been a supporter of diplomatic settlement of disputes rather than military aggression.

India's stake in the Russia-Ukraine crisis is quite high in terms of many aspects that include, social, cultural, economic, educational as well as defence. Moreover, India shares a dynamic relationship with many of the countries directly or indirectly involved in this crisis, hence, it is somewhat impossible for India to take one side. No doubt, the republic of India wants de-escalation of the crisis, but only by arbitration or conciliation. Thus, considering all the angles to this crisis, India is taking a backdoor strategy to solve this dispute, keeping in mind that any country's 'National Interest' is above the overall global interest.