ZWhy should Washington strengthen cooperation with the “largest democracy in the world”, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken visited India for the first time after taking office, emphasizing the uniqueness of the relations between the two countries. The rapprochement of New Delhi with the United States does not harm Russian-Indian relations yet, experts say
Anthony Blinken arrives at New Delhi Airport
What Blinken came to New Delhi with
The program of the visit of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to India includes a speech at the embassy, a meeting with representatives of civil society, talks with Indian Foreign Minister Subramaniam Jaishankar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a busy schedule, the Secretary of State also found time for a brief meeting with the representative of the spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama Ngodup Dongchung. In the past, such meetings have invariably provoked criticism of China, which considers the Buddhist spiritual leader a separatist.
On the eve of and during the trip, Blinken consistently emphasized the closeness of the positions of the United States and India on global issues. “It is difficult to find countries that have done more together than the United States and India are doing,” the Secretary of State said at a meeting with representatives of civil society. The coronavirus pandemic, climate change, issues of defense, mutual security, trade and investment, education, energy, science and technology, he listed the areas of cooperation. “If we put everything together, the relations between our countries are one of the most important in the world,” Blinken stressed the importance of bilateral ties.
In January, when assuming the post of Secretary of State, he called the relations between the United States and India an example of a “bipartisan success story”, both Democratic President Barack Obama and Republican President Donald Trump who succeeded him attached equal importance to them. With the latter, Washington formulated a newThe foreign policy concept of the Indo-Pacific Strategy, which reflected the shift in US policy towards India. And on March 12, with the participation of the 46th US President Joe Biden, the first Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) was held at the highest level, which also covered Japan and Australia.
In China, they believe that the goal of this alliance is to counteract Beijing. The State Department also stated that the United States will work together with its allies and partners to “hold China accountable for its actions that threaten stability in the Indo-Pacific region and for undermining the international rules-based order” after Blinken’s telephone conversations with a member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, Yang Jiechi, in February.
India is a key player in Asia and an important partner of the United States, the Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council (INF)stated Andrey Kortunov. “Although Washington has other allies in the Asia-Pacific region-Australia, South Korea, Japan, nevertheless, India surpasses these countries in size and influence,” Kortunov noted in a conversation with RBC. Thus, the expert says, the United States seeks both to develop bilateral relations with India and to integrate it within the framework of institutions such as Quad.
The trade turnover between the United States and India in 2018 amounted to $142 billion. As of 2020, the United States has approved the sale of $20 billion worth of weapons to India.
The Indian Foreign Minister on Wednesday insisted that the Quad is not functioning to counter any particular country. “In a globalized world, India has interests that extend beyond its immediate neighbors. People need to get rid of the idea that other countries are somehow doing things directed specifically against them, ” Jaishankar said. In 2020, India’s relations with China experienced another crisis due to a decades-long territorial dispute over the ownership of a section of mountainous territory in northern Kashmir, as well as almost 60 thousand square kilometers in the north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.
Can India help in Afghanistan
At a press conference after talks with the Indian Foreign Minister, Blinken expressed concern about the development of the situation in Afghanistan. “We see that the Taliban is a terrorist movement banned in Russia. & mdash; RBC) attacks the county centers and threatens some provincial centers. We are also aware of the atrocities committed by the Taliban in the territory under their control. These reports are deeply disturbing, ” the Secretary of State said.
After the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001, New Delhi spent $3 billion on supporting Kabul-an order of magnitude less than the United States, but more than any other neighboring state, the newspaper “Kommersant” reminds. But it is too early to talk about expanding India’s participation in resolving the Afghan problem, the main stumbling block is the contradictions between Delhi and Islamabad, says Kortunov. According to him, India is used to considering the Afghan crisis not as a separate problem, but as a conflict caused, among other thingsby the actions of Pakistan and heated from the outside. “Hence the demands to put pressure on Pakistan to stop supporting the radical factions of the Taliban movement or to block the supply of weapons to Afghanistan. In Pakistan, they also believe that India’s role in the Afghan direction is small, and they want to maintain such a status quo, ” the analyst explained. According to Kortunov, this situation hinders international negotiations, given the regular aggravations in relations between India and Pakistan and their inability to find a common language.
How is the balance between relations with Washington and Moscow ensured
One of the issues that Blinken avoided mentioning publicly during the visit was the issue of the supply of Russian anti-aircraft missile systems to India. In early October 2018, on the sidelines of the Russian-Indian negotiations at the highest level, a contract was signed for the supply of S-400 air defense systems to India, the value of the contract is $5.43 billion. India should receive five regimental sets of S-400. The Trump administration condemned this deal and allowed retaliatory actions against India because of the purchases of Russian weapons. However, representativesThe Biden administration prefers not to comment publicly on this topic. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who visited New Delhi in March, said that he had not discussed the issue of sanctions with Indian officials. “India has not yet acquired the Russian S-400 missile system,” so the issue of sanctions was not discussed, ” he explained. At the same time, the general director of Rosoboronexport, Alexander Mikheev, said that the first deliveries of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems to India will take place in October and December of this year.
Kortunov identified two factors that characterize Russian-Indian relations. Firstly, it is the stability of the military-technical partnership between the two countries-inertia is inherent in this type of partnership, since contracts for the purchase of weapons involve transactions for the maintenance and repair of equipment or training of specialists. The United States is aware of this, and therefore is not inclined to put too much pressure on India, especially since the weapons purchased from Russia are used to strengthen the border with China, Kortunov explained. “All other things being equal, America wants to replace Russia in terms of military partnership with Delhi, but this is not a matter of several years, butIndia is getting closer to the West, but at the same time keeps its distance for several reasons, Alexey Zakharov, a researcher at the Center for Indian Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, notes in a review for the Carnegie Center. “India is being pushed to get closer to the West, and above all to the United States, by difficulties in relations with China. Take one thing that is armedThe confrontation between Indian and Chinese troops in the Himalayas, which began a year ago, has already become historic in its duration and losses on both sides. And India keeps its distance from the West, among other things, because of its unwillingness to spoil relations with Russia, ” the expert points out.
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