External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that countries in Asia, including China, should engage more with Russia, a country with an enormous tradition of statecraft.
“Russia is turning more to Asia or to parts of the world which are not West. It makes sense to give Russia multiple options. If we railroad Russia to a single option, then you’re making it a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. Other countries especially in Asia need to engage Russia,” Jaishankar said while speaking at Raisina Dialogue 2024 conclave in New Delhi.
Organised by independent think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF) and Ministry of External Affairs, the dialogue is a conference on geopolitics and geoeconomics, committed to addressing the most challenging issues facing the international community. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the conference on February 21.
Speaking about Russia-China relations Jaishankar said that on the one hand there were people who set up policies to bring the two nations together and then they say beware of the two coming together.
“It is certainly in Indian national interest but it is also in Global interest. A lot of doors have been shut to Russia and the West,” Jaishankar said.
Russia, the minister said, is a power with an enormous tradition of statecraft, and such powers would never put themselves into a single relationship of an overwhelming nature.
The comments come days after Jaishankar reaffirmed India’s “stable and friendly ties” with Russia and said Moscow has never hurt the interests of New Delhi.
India-Russia ties have been under scrutiny since Russian president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022, triggering weapons aid for Kyiv from the West, and financial sanctions by the United States and Europe, including those on the purchase of Russian crude oil. India, however, continues its purchases from Russia, at sizeable discounts, to feed an oil-hungry economy.
The Russia-Ukraine war has accelerated negative trends in China’s relations with Russia. Before February 24, 2022, China largely viewed Russia as a stable, reliable partner as the two worked in tandem to undermine US dominance of the interna- tional system, according to a research paper by non-profit Brookings.
China, that shares decades old defence partnership with Ukraine, sought to downplay the China-Russia ties at a recent foreign minister’s meet with Ukraine. Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi told his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in Munich that Beijing does not sell lethal weapons to Russia for its war against China.
