New Delhi must keep back channels open with Washington, and use thaw with China as a leverage.<\/p>\n
Monday\u2019s talks between Trump, Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House appear to have raised hopes for a possible solution to the Ukraine war. From India\u2019s perspective, this is great. Modi has consistently maintained that this isn\u2019t an era of war, and that solutions to the Ukraine war must be found through dialogue and diplomacy.<\/p>\n
The current geopolitical situation has forced India to play a delicate game between US, Russia and China. Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi just concluded a two-day visit to New Delhi. And China lifted a raft of restrictions, from rare earth magnets to tunnel boring machines, that was stalling production and projects in India.<\/p>\n
The big question after all these geopolitical manoeuvres is, does Trump\u2019s extra 25% penalty on Indian exports \u2013 set to come into effect on Aug 27 \u2013 for buying Russian oil hold water. As reported earlier, moves appear to be on to revive US-Russia energy cooperation with Putin signing a decree that allows the re-entry of American energy major Exxon Mobil in the massive Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project.<\/p>\n
Coupled with the fact that Biden-led US had actually asked India to buy Russian crude to stabilise global oil prices after Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, New Delhi can\u2019t be faulted here. Plus, most of the payment for Russian crude was in rupees, preventing Moscow from diverting this money for its war machinery.<\/p>\n
Additionally, if Trump\u2019s 25% secondary tariff was meant as a demonstrative tool, that purpose has now been achieved with Putin today appearing to be open to negotiations. Given this situation, there is no rational basis to penalise India for buying Russian oil. Second, US needs to think ahead. Given India\u2019s large market and growing economy, this is where American companies want to be. India, unlike Pakistan, also pays hard cash for American defence platforms. And US defence manufacturers are certainly interested in big-ticket Indian deals like the 114 multi-role fighter aircraft and procurement of 5th generation fighters.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, US\u2019s biggest strategic concern after the Ukraine war is China. True, there is a thawing of New Delhi-Beijing ties today. But if Trump wants a successful China strategy, he needs an India card in his pack, given New Delhi-Washington strategic complementarities. Therefore, Washington\u2019s 25% penalty is undermining a mutually beneficial partnership here. Two things must continue \u2013 quiet back channels between New Delhi and Washington to smoothen rough edges, and continuing engagement with China as a leverage. India has to play it smart.<\/p>\n
Facebook
\n Twitter
\n Linkedin
\n Email<\/p>\n
Disclaimer<\/p>\n
Views expressed above are the author’s own.<\/p>\n
\n END OF ARTICLE\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Delhi must keep back channels open with Washington, and use thaw with China as a leverage. Monday\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46,32125,32129,32128,32126],"class_list":["post-83009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy","tag-edit-page-blog","tag-gen-zedits-blog","tag-genzeditor-blog","tag-india-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}