Yesterday was a momentous day in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict. After several unsubstantiated reports claimed that the Ukrainian authorities were using the Indian students as human shields in the crisis-ridden areas of the country, especially the city of Kharkiv – New Delhi immediately huddled with the Kremlin and managed to halt the war for good six hours. The break was utilized by the External affairs ministry and the Modi government ministers on the ground to round up the students to be sent back to India.
The gesture from Russia before it started its carpet-bombing activities suggested that India and Russia’s ties were stronger than ever. After all which country stops in the middle of a war to help its ally?
India paused a war for 6-8 hours just to get Indians out – a war that nobody, not the US, not the EU, has been able to stop. Let that sink in.
— Abhijit Iyer-Mitra (@Iyervval) March 2, 2022
India has been resolutely managing its diplomatic stance
India has twice abstained from voting when a draft resolution was brought at the UN to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With Russia supporting India and vice versa, the world has been segregated into two blocs, viz. the western bloc and the eastern bloc.
The Western bloc is led by the US while the Eastern bloc is led by Russia with New Delhi leaning towards the latter. Japan may not have come around at the moment to join the Eastern bloc due to a liberal Prime Minister in Fumio Kishida but rest assured, it will come around.
Read More: Who can save you in Ukraine? Indian flag!
China has isolated itself with its timid diplomatic approach
However, China, which does not need to play to the demands of diplomatic ambivalence like New Delhi has remained absent from the voting and supporting Russia.
Kremlin understands New Delhi’s position and is perfectly fine with the clear diplomatic idea on display. However, Beijing’s refusal to outright support Russia did not sit well with Putin and his office.
A significant fraction of liberals here in India had decided to put India and China in the same bracket when the former decided to not participate in the voting.
However, it appears that by not going with India or Russia, Beijing has isolated itself on the world map. As reported by TFI, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin recently spoke about China and Russia just being “comprehensive strategic partners”.
We are not allies: China on Russia
The spokesman made it clear that their relationship features “non-alliance, non-confrontation and non-targeting of any third party”. A lot of jargons were thrown in, but the upshot was that China is only interested in a relationship of convenience with the Russians. Beijing is not going to back Putin in a war, and it is not going to take on a third party for Moscow.
Read More: For the first time China explicitly states that China and Russia are not allies
With such an approach, China finds itself sandwiched as the meat between Kremlin in the North and New Delhi in the south. To make matters worse, it cannot join the Western bloc for obvious reasons.
Meanwhile, the supposed ‘civilized, blue-eyed, blond hair’ Western bloc is playing the part of a sanctimonious saint when it was the one who ignited the flames of war in the first place. Ukraine and its simpleton President in his naivety tried to join the West and brought misery upon his countrymen.
However, the Western bloc is not touching Ukraine with a 50 feet pole. It can impose sanctions all it likes but with the world increasingly getting polarized into two blocs, it will only be a matter of time before Kremlin gets back in full flow. And if one has a giant like India in its corner, the narrative war is already halfway won. China will be ruing its chances after it squandered an opportunity to mend fences with both India and Russia.