{"id":265615,"date":"2024-07-01T12:01:18","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T11:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=265615"},"modified":"2024-06-28T08:26:35","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T07:26:35","slug":"modis-moscow-mission-what-the-indian-pms-visit-to-russia-signals-to-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/07\/modis-moscow-mission-what-the-indian-pms-visit-to-russia-signals-to-the-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Modi\u2019s Moscow Mission: What the Indian PM\u2019s Visit to Russia Signals to the West"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) greets Russian President Vladimir Putin before a meeting at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on 6 Dec 2021.\u00a0 \u00a9 Money SHARMA \/ AFP<\/p><\/div>\n

The prime minister\u2019s prompt visit to Russia after re-election sends an important message: New Delhi is committed to boost relations with its time-tested partner despite Western pressures.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

28 Jun 2024 <\/em>– Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s decision to visit Russia<\/a> almost immediately after\u00a0beginning his third term in office sends many diplomatic signals. The core message is that India continues to attach great importance to its ties with Russia, notwithstanding the collapse of Moscow\u2019s ties with the West over the conflict in Ukraine, New Delhi’s own increasing closeness to the US, and the importance it\u00a0attaches to its\u00a0ties with Western Europe.<\/p>\n

\n

We have come under pressure from our Western partners to reduce our ties with Russia, which we have resisted. We have maintained a high-level dialogue with Russia\u00a0though the practice of annual summits has got disrupted. We have refused to\u00a0apply Western sanctions\u00a0though these have hampered\u00a0\u00a0our bilateral financial transactions.\u00a0On energy, we have, in fact,\u00a0expanded our oil trade with Russia to the point of Russia becoming our largest oil supplier.<\/p>\n

The unique feature of our ties with Russia had been these annual summit meetings since the year 2000. The last such summit was in December\u00a02021\u00a0when Russian President Vladimir Putin travelled to New Delhi. The Covid pandemic and Russia\u2019s pre-occupation with the Ukraine conflict interrupted this practice.<\/p>\n

Putin did not attend the G20 summit meeting last year, nor did he attend the G20 summit at Bali either.\u00a0He has also prevaricated on the question of his attendance at the next G20 summit in Brazil.<\/p>\n

Some misgivings in political circles arose because of the delay in resuming the summit meetings, especially with Modi\u2019s highly publicised interactions with President Biden and European leaders such as Macron. These gave greater visibility to our relations with the West at the top leadership level and contrasted with a reduced exposure to our ties with Russia.<\/p>\n

Our media has also contributed to the perception of a dilution of our ties with Russia by purveying the western line on the conflict in Ukraine. Reports from western agencies have been reproduced routinely. Think tank events have heavily featured western leaders who have used the platforms to attack Russia on our soil. The Russian presence at these events has been minimal.<\/p>\n

External Affairs Minister Jaishankar\u2019s visit to Russia in late December 2023 when he exceptionally called on President Putin indicated an effort to remove misgivings that India-Russia ties were waning politically. At the meeting Putin issued an invitation for Modi to visit Russia and Jaishankar subsequently\u00a0indicated publicly that this visit would be on the cards in 2024.<\/p>\n

Normally the India-Russia annual summit is held towards the later part of the year, which is not the most congenial time for a summit in Moscow because of cold weather conditions but is the most congenial time for a summit in India because of cooler weather here.<\/p>\n

In the present instance, both sides seem to have considered it opportune to promptly convey a political message that ties at the bilateral level, and in the context of tense geopolitical realities, remainn important for both sides. Modi and Putin could have waited for the BRICS summit in Kazan in Russia in October this year to also hold a bilateral summit but have consciously chosen not to.<\/p>\n

Modi attended the G7 summit in Italy days after he was sworn-in as Prime Minister. It was important that he attended as his absence could have been misconstrued as a lowering of\u00a0his profile, and indeed that of India, after his election setback at home. The Western press have gloated at the \u201chumbling\u201d<\/em> of Modi.<\/p>\n

Modi rightly wanted to convey to the G7 leaders and to the Indian public that it would be business as usual on the external front, that the failure to secure an absolute majority in the national election had no bearing on the conduct of India\u2019s foreign policy. It was necessary to convey a sense of confidence and self-assurance in his formal statement at the G7 outreach meeting as well as in his interaction with individual group leaders, who, as it happens, are politically much more seriously contested at home, whose popularity ratings are lower, with some heading minority governments and some who are slated to lose power in the next elections.<\/p>\n

Modi clearly wanted to balance his participation of the G7 summit on the heels of his re-election with a summit meeting with Putin notwithstanding his busy political agenda at home.<\/p>\n

Whether his decision\u00a0was influenced by a recognition that powerful lobbies in the West would prefer a weaker leader at the helm of Indian affairs, which might explain the orchestrated political campaign against him prior to and during the elections in Western media, think tank, academic civil society and even political circles, in what constituted a clear interference in our election process, is a matter of speculation.<\/p>\n

He may have wanted to negate any perception that a weaker government at the\u00a0national level\u00a0and a stronger opposition at home would make India more vulnerable to Western pressure by\u00a0<\/strong>signaling\u00a0that India\u2019s foreign policy course, its determination to preserve its strategic autonomy and pursue a policy of friendship with all, to best protect India\u2019s national interest, would continue.<\/p>\n

Modi will not be attending the SCO summit on July 3 as the parliamentary session in India will still be on. India has clear stakes in the SCO\u00a0\u2013 and\u00a0cannot yield strategic space in it to its disadvantage. The\u00a0Deputy Secretary General post\u00a0in the\u00a0organisation\u00a0is now held by an Indian. But the timetable is problematic. By visiting Russia a few days later Modi is partially compensating for his absence at the SCO summit, as Russia is a major pillar of the organization.<\/p>\n

Modi\u2019s early visit to Moscow is important also in the wider context of BRICS expansion. The BRICS summit in Kazan in Russia in October this year will decide on the group’s expansion. India must have a strong say in the process as\u00a0an original BRIC member. Purely geopolitical considerations, in the context of the sharpening North-South and East-West divides should not lead to including all-comers.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0consensus on objective criteria for expansion is in the best interest of the group and its objectives. This is a delicate exercise as some countries seeking membership are part of a military alliance or oppose transit and trade with specific countries, or have known terrorist affiliations.<\/p>\n

Modi\u2019s Moscow visit, in sum, has important bilateral, regional and international dimensions.<\/p>\n

___________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Kanwal Sibal is a retired Indian Foreign Secretary and former Ambassador to Russia (2004-2007). He also held ambassadorial positions in Turkey, Egypt and France, and was<\/em> Deputy Chief of Mission in Washington, DC.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – rt.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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