The rise of India’s clout: Azerbaijan conflict, Pope’s Committee and SCO

In the modern world, the glare around the power is more powerful than the actual power itself. A country cannot utilise its clout until it gets over endorsement of it. For a long time, existing powers refused to accept India’s rise. Now they are getting bypassed and India’s galvanisation of the developing world is bearing fruits.

Azerbaijan wants India to interfere

 Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict has become the second such dispute in a row which requires India to intervene. The appeal came from Azerbaijan itself, a country which is believed to be aggressor of the two. Leyla Abdullayeva, spokesperson of Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan said that her country is open to dialogues and will welcome peace-making initiatives.

Explaining the role which India can play, Leyla said, “Azerbaijan has good cooperation and bilateral relations with India in different fields, in the economic field, in humanitarian, cultural and tourism. With India, we are also cooperating within international fora organisations like the biggest one United Nation, the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).Well, if there is an intention by the Indian side to help or to come up with some proposal, as I said, Azerbaijan is always ready for such initiatives,”

Both countries were recently engaged in one of the many wars they have been fighting for decades. Nagorno-Karabakh is the territory on which both stake their claims. Though a temporary truce has been arrived at, the chances of skirmish breaking out in near future are high, especially because Russia, a strategic partner of Armenia, is engaged in Ukraine.

Eastern Europe is also calling for India

Even in the conflict in Eastern Europe, India became a focal point of geopolitics. As soon as the first bullet was fired on the Ukrainian soil, calls for India’s intervention started to gain momentum. PM Modi is the only global leader in the world who has been contacted by both President Putin and Zelenskyy for support. Both countries even stopped the war in order to allow Indian students to pass harmlessly. Apparently, India not criticising any of the bloc and remaining overtly neutral played a key role in it.

Moreover, not only did India refuse to take sides, it also increased its economic ties with Russia. The West tried a lot to bring India on its side. The United States’ officials deployed a variety of tactics, including explicit support to India against China, but India did not buzz. Lastly, at the G7 Summit, Biden tried the old diplomatic tactics by courting PM Modi, but even there India refused to become a signatory of their joint statement.

India has galvanised the Developing world

India occupying centre stage in Eastern Europe conflict is in fact a failure of the multilateral forum like the United Nations. The forum is losing its credibility with every passing day. Developing nations all around the world are looking for an alternative and they have not been able to locate a better partner than India. India’s proactive stands regarding International Solar Alliance, WTO negotiations, vaccine supply among other stuff involving developing countries’ have now started to pay off.

At least 121 countries, not part of the western bloc, are partners with India in the International solar alliance, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the India Africa Summit in 2015. Similarly, in the WTO, India was able to get the deal done with the explicit support of 82 out of 125 countries on farm subsidies. The greatest contributor to India’s increasing support base is the Vaccine initiative, which it launched to save the world from Corona Virus.

After fears around Covid-19 deaths subsided, the world needed vaccines. Western countries refused in initial phases, but India came forward to save the developing and underdeveloped world. India’s ‘vaccine maitri’ was beautifully commemorated by Brazilian President when Bolsonaro invoked Bhagwan Hanuman and Sanjeevani Booti to thank India.

Mexican endorsement to PM Modi

Recently, Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that he wants PM Modi, Pope Francis and Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General to bring truce into the world. He has proposed a commission comprising these 3 leaders. According to Obrador’s plan, the Commission will present a proposal aimed at ensuring zero conflict for at least next 5 years.

Obrador, renowned for introducing welfare schemes, believes that the truce period will reorient governments’ approaches towards human development. India jumping in to protect the world from hunger through wheat exports probably prompted the Mexican President to push PM Modi as one of the top 3 credible leaders on the planet.

Xi Jinping is well aware of it

In fact, the stature is now reflected in the way PM Modi conducted humself during bilateral as well as multilateral meetings. When the time called for his interaction with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he did not even forward his hand for a formal handshake.

Even smiles were not exchanged between both leaders. It was an indication that India has not forgiven China for their Galwan mistake and until China is serious on conflict reducing measures, India won’t be taking proactive measures.

At the start of the century, experts assumed that Asian Century will be of China and India will play a second fiddle. But India has turned the tide in its favour and it is more explicit now.

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