- For quite some time now, the Western and European countries are known to exhibit biased tendencies and viewpoints whilst handling challenging situations arising out of Asian blocks. History is replete with many instances where the European countries have looked the other way vis-à-vis one of their own neighbors as compared to a nation in the subcontinent. Needless to mention, such hypocritical and biased donning of morality stands exposed even as Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine enters its third month. As you are aware, it is extremely easy to preach conscience, morality, and righteousness but what matters is following the same diligently.
PC: Reuters
- Several European countries have imposed varying degrees of sanctions on Russia over its uncalled-for aggressiveness against Ukraine. However, several same countries have also not stopped procuring vital energy resources from the Russian establishment despite the lingering war having disrupted the global supply chains to a great extent. You would agree that there’s no denying that the Russian invasion of Ukraine cannot be justified by any yardstick. As mentioned above, the military invasion of a sovereign nation violates every international law and convention. The loss of precious lives and the livelihood of innocent people is simply unjustifiable.
- Indian response to the crisis so far has been neutral without directly condemning the Russian invasion. However, the time has come for India to take a principled position on the Ukraine crisis and condemn Russian military operations notwithstanding its deep ties. Having mentioned the same, the external affairs minister S Jaishankar is undeniably right in asserting that Europe has no moral high ground in questioning India’s stance on the Ukraine issue. For the record, despite their talk of upholding a rules-based order and standing up to authoritarian regimes, EU nations continue to buy Russian energy that boosting the Russian war chest by an estimated Euro 1 billion every day.
PC: Dave Johnson
- Delving further into the fast-evolving geostrategic alignments and realignments will reveal how Europe has stayed quite ambivalent about India’s strategic concerns during earlier as well as recent times. It was quite happy doing business with China even as Beijing’s belligerence, expansionist, and ambitious moves in the Indo-Pacific culminated in the Indian eastern border misadventure leading to amassing of the military inventories and manpower. This situation would have prevailed for even longer until the United States of America cracked the whip and decided to counter Chinese evil designs.
- Thus, just as Europe is unable to suddenly wean itself off Russian energy, India too needs to consider practical aspects of its relationship with Russia, especially in the defence sector. Also, there are indicative signs that the West is changing its strategy from just helping Ukraine defence itself to decisively weakening Russia. Mind you, this creates a dangerous situation, and a cornered Moscow may react in unpredictable ways. All said and done, countries act on their strategic interests. Given this, the EU should be doing more to create strategic complementarities with India rather than lecturing hollow sermons which were firmly rebuked by the foreign minister.
