NEW DELHI, May 9:
Amidst the prevailing disquiet in the country over Russia’s recent engagement with Pakistan, and its increasing strategic coordination with China, veteran diplomat Kanwal Sibal today said that India has a diplomatic challenge in retaining a balance between its ties with Russia and with the US.
”India’s defence ties with the US meet its needs in areas, in which Russia cannot. The US can play a role in hedging China’s ambitions in the Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean regions, which Russia cannot,” the former foreign secretary and former envoy to Russia said.
”Our relations with the US have greatly improved, just as Russia-US relations have become tense. Russia has some misgivings about our ties with the US, especially the inroads the US has made in our Defence sector, which the Russians see as being at their expense.
We have a diplomatic challenge in retaining a balance between our Russia and US ties,” Mr Sibal said. ”Russia should, however, realise that the improvement of India’s ties with the US had nothing to do with the deterioration of its own ties with the US, as both had dynamics, which were independent of each other,” he added.
But, the former Foreign Secretary underlined that India has many shared objectives with Russia in terms of more inclusive international governance, reform of the international financial institutions, respect for sovereignty, non-interference in the internal affairs of countries, double standards on terrorism and human rights and using democracy as a geopolitical tool to destabilise the countries.
And because of these commonality of interest, close relations with Russia were necessary for maintaining a balance in the country’s foreign policy, he said. Mr Sibal’s observations come ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Russia early next month, which will given him an opportunity to reboot the ties with India’s most trusted and close friend, which has now made a come back on the international scene under Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Replying to a question on Russia’s relations with India’s giant neighbour China, Mr Sibal said after the sharp deterioration of its relations with the US and the EU, Russia had turned eastwards, especially towards China, and the strategic coordination between the two countries had increased and their economic ties had expanded, with China having now access to Russia’s natural resources.
Moreover, the two countries were now cooperating in Central Asia, and they had a shared interest also to counter the US domination and unilateral actions in various parts of the world. On the recent developments in the Russia-Pakistan relations and their implications for India, Mr Sibal said Russia’s overtures to Pakistan were an unfortunate fall-out of both Russia’s tensions with the US and improved India-US strategic understandings.
”We have tried to isolate Pakistan on the terrorist front, but already this is most difficult given strong Chinese support to Pakistan, but if Russia too courts Pakistan our effort is negated,” Mr Sibal said.
He also underlined that Russia’s opening to the Taliban boosts Pakistan’s objectives in Afghanistan, which were strategically anti-Indian, besides strengthening religious fundamentalists in the region. (PTI)
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