The war’s cold facts and what India needs to glean

Context: As the Ukraine-Russia war nears the end of three weeks, it is time for India to learn lesson from this war and find its position in the real world of geopolitics.

What is the lesson to be learnt from the Ukraine-Russia War?

First, a nation’s vital interests can be protected only by that nation itself. For example, in this war Ukrainians alone are facing the brunt of the Russian military might. The West is only supplying arms and intelligence inputs.

Similarly, during the1962 India-China war, Moscow had no time for New Delhi and the Americans offered only moral and logistic support despite New Delhi’s request for military help.

Therefore, after the 1965 and 1971 wars, India re-armed itself in a big way. Later, in 1974, and 1998, India demonstrated its scientific capability through a ‘peaceful’ nuclear explosion and India became a nuclear power.

Is status of nuclear power nations enough for India?

A country cannot only be nuclear power, it also needs to be conventional power. Nuclear weapons act as a deterrent between two nuclear powers only in the nuclear realm, it cannot be a substitute for ‘conventional’ power. It is because conventional Power provides strategic autonomy in matters of national security.

India lacks independence in this area. India has been heavily dependent on Russia and US for arms.

Russia: India purchased MiGs, Sukhoi’s, S-400, etc. from Russia. Therefore, India had to abstain on Ukraine in United Nations (UNs) resolution.

West: After the end of Cold War, India diversified its arms purchases to dilute its dependence on Russia for arms. But now India has also become heavily dependent on the West. For example, India purchases from the West include the American C-17 and C-130J Super Hercules aircraft, Chinook and Apache attack helicopters, Boeing P-8I long range aircraft for maritime surveillance, The Indian Army’s M777 artillery guns, the IAF’s Rafale and Mirage fighters from France, Jaguars from Britain and a multitude of drones from Israel;

India has signed three ‘foundational’ agreements with the U.S. such as Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) etc.

Way Ahead

There is no other way out but to make India self-reliant in defence sector. Therefore, self-sufficiency in defence research and development and manufacturing is an inescapable imperative.

Source: the post is based on ana article “The war’s cold facts and what India needs to glean” published in the Hindu on 15^th March 2022