THE ongoing Ukraine war has thrown geopolitics in a flux and its impact is being deeply felt across South Asia, forcing the countries in the region to adapt and re-adjust their foreign policies. India has faced tough time to negotiate the contradictory geopolitical demands but has ensured it stays true to its core national interests. The BJP-led government has pursued an independent foreign policy in its relations with the west and Russia. The west has found it difficult to countenance this assertion on the part of India. As a probable result, recents weeks have witnessed a newfound warmth between the west and Pakistan. This shift became apparent by the sudden rekindling of the US-Pakistan ties in the recent past. It was evident when recently the US state department spokesman Ned Price said that both India and Pakistan were US partners, in response to the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar raising questions over the “merits” of the US-Pakistan relationship.
What is more, the warmth has been visible in the interactions between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pakistani foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto. Earlier in September, the US State Department approved a Foreign Military Sale (FMS) to Pakistan for the sustainability of the Pakistan Air Force F-16 fleet and equipment at the cost of $450 million.
Though the tilt towards India is still there but in recent months, the US has made an effort to accommodate Pakistan which under Imran Khan was threatening to draw closer to China-Russia axis. But with Khan’s loss of power in a no-confidence vote which he blames on the US, Washington has sought to repair its otherwise frayed relations with Islamabad and has also begun to respond to its concerns. And going by Price’s statement, the US may also be playing a furtive role to get India and Pakistan to restore engagement.
Developments like these have been a source of concern for New Delhi which sees it as a renewed appeasement of Pakistan, Many analysts in India see it as a punishment for India’s pursuit of an independent foreign policy in response to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Besides abstaining from western resolutions against Russia, India continues to import oil from the country at discounted rates, something that has not pleased the western countries.
Rather than join the western camp, India has sought to play a mediatory role in resolving the Ukraine crisis. Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting told him that “this is not an era of war” and that the Ukraine issue should be settled by diplomacy. At the end of the day, India will be better served by serving its own interests and this requires the country to strike a balance between the demands of the west and the concerns of Russia, its longstanding ally.
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