<\/p>\n
News: <\/span><\/b>Recently, India has been facing severe pressure from the west and especially from the US over its stand on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. <\/span><\/p>\n India\u2019s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has repeatedly <\/span>abstained<\/span><\/b> on multiple resolutions critical of Russia\u2019s invasion in the UN forums. In fact, it has <\/span>not directly<\/span><\/b> mentioned Russia in the statements criticizing the conflict.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 2018, India <\/span>\u201czeroed out\u201d <\/span><\/b>its oil imports from Iran, after the U.S. warned India to drop its oil imports from Iran or face U.S. sanctions. At that time, Iran was India\u2019s third biggest supplier of crude.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 2022, the <\/span>U.S. is pressurizing India<\/span><\/b> to cut its oil imports from Russia. In addition, India has been warned of <\/span>\u201cconsequences\u201d <\/span><\/b>for creating payment mechanisms around sanctions against Russia.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n India\u2019s External Affairs Minister has said that India does not recognise <\/span>unilateral sanctions <\/span><\/b>by any country<\/span>. <\/span><\/b>India recognizes<\/span> only those sanctions which are mandated by the United Nations (UNs)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n India has been increasing import of Russian oil, at a discount. In addition, India is also accelerating coal imports.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The RBI and Russian bank officials have been holding <\/span>technical talks<\/span><\/b> on the <\/span>rupee-rouble payment mechanism. <\/span><\/b>It is aimed to be used for purchases that circumvent sanctions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n India has<\/span> dependency <\/span><\/b>on Russia for <\/span>60% defence hardware <\/span><\/b>and <\/span>85% defence spare parts<\/span><\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n In the energy sector, Indian oil <\/span>public sector units (PSUs)<\/span><\/b> have invested $16 billion in <\/span>Russian oil and gas fields <\/span><\/b>in eastern Russia. In addition, India\u2019s nuclear power plant say,<\/span> Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu<\/span><\/b> has also been built by Russia which fulfils India\u2019s energy requirement.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>long-term sustainability<\/span><\/b> of the western sanctions on Russia is doubtful. Only 30 to 40 countries have joined the sanctions. However, major economies including <\/span>China <\/span><\/b>and <\/span>much of South America <\/span><\/b>and <\/span>Africa<\/span><\/b> have stayed out. In this situation, it\u2019s not beneficial for India to pick the west side in the<\/span> \u201cdollar vs non-dollar\u201d economic system<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n India\u2019s<\/span> strategic future<\/span><\/b> is also inextricably linked with Russia. India needs Russia for its <\/span>continental security<\/span><\/b>. India\u2019s primary threats come from northern frontier from China and Pakistan. For example, Chinese troops have transgressed and occupied Indian territory. In this context, Moscow can play a <\/span>mediatory role<\/span><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n India is part of regional grouping such as<\/span> BRICS, RIC <\/span><\/b>(Russia-India-China) and <\/span>Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)<\/span><\/b>. These groupings have strategic significance for India.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Russia being a <\/span>P-5 member<\/span><\/b> has consistently supported India\u2019s cause in the <\/span>UN Security Council<\/span><\/b>. In addition, support has also been received at other multilateral institutions such as the <\/span>Financial Action Task Force (FATF)<\/span><\/b> and the <\/span>Nuclear Suppliers Group <\/span><\/b>(NSG).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>European Union<\/span><\/b> and the <\/span>U.S.<\/span><\/b> have been critical of India\u2019s <\/span>Citizenship (Amendment) Act<\/span><\/b>, the <\/span>Jammu and Kashmir reorganisation<\/span><\/b>, or the treatment of minorities, the media and NGOs. However, Russia has not raised concerns over such issues against India.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Biden\u2019s regime <\/span><\/b>is not assertive as<\/span> Trump\u2019s regime <\/span><\/b>was in case of Iran sanctions. Therefore, it seems India can escape the warning issued by the US.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Government of India adheres to<\/span> non-alignment <\/span><\/b>and<\/span> strategic autonomy principles<\/span><\/b>. India has refused to entertain western sanctions in the past also. India conducted nuclear tests in 1998. India also refused to bend to U.S. pressure on <\/span>Iran oil sanctions in 2012<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Why should India criticise Russian actions?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Russia invasion is a <\/span>brutal invasion<\/span><\/b> of another country. In past, the Indian government has deplored <\/span>the U.S. invasion of Iraq<\/span><\/b> through resolution in the <\/span>Indian Parliament in 2003.<\/span><\/b> This was done despite India\u2019s growing partnership with the U.S.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Jawaharlal Nehru in a speech in the U.S. in 1949, said <\/span>\u201cWhere freedom is menaced or justice threatened or where aggression takes place, India cannot and shall not be neutral.<\/span><\/b>\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Strategic autonomy<\/span><\/b> can carry credibility only when it is expressed without fear or favour of the consequences.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Source: <\/span><\/b>The post is based on an article \u201cIndia can criticise Russia\u2019s Ukraine Invasion<\/strong>\u201d published in The Hindu<\/strong> on 19<\/strong><\/span>th<\/strong> April 2022<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" News: Recently, India has been facing severe pressure from the west and especially from the US over its stand on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. India\u2019s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has repeatedly abstained on multiple resolutions critical of Russia\u2019s invasion in the UN forums. In fact, it has not directly mentioned Russia in the statements criticizing… Continue reading India can criticise Russia\u2019s Ukraine invasion\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-180193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704823146},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What has been India\u2019s experience and response with respect to the Western Pressure so far?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n
India\u2019s stand in the India-Russia Bilateral Relations Post Ukrainian Invasion<\/span><\/b>
\n<\/span><\/h5>\nWhat explains the Government\u2019s refusal to bow to combined western pressure?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n