Samarkand SCO | Strong ties with Russia uniquely place India at the world stage

Prime Minister Narendra Modi (eight) met Russian President Vladimir Putin at Samarkand. (File image)

On September 16, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the ancient Uzbek Silk Road city of Samarkand as the war in Ukraine further sharpens the divide between the West and the rest, with New Delhi poised to continue with a unique position in the shifting sands of a multi-polar world.

This was the first meeting between the two leaders since the conflict began in Ukraine, though both leaders spoke to each other on phone not less than four times during this period.

There could have been no greater avenue than the SCO summit to measure how the foreign policy matrix is changing faster.

The grouping that has India along with Russia, China, and Iran, with Central Asian Republics is in the form of a security alliance. Unlike the overarching temperament of apathy and hostility in the West, most countries in the bloc are politically considerate, economically close, historically-bonded, and geographically-proximate to Moscow.

This was the most publicly-candid meeting between Modi and Putin where the Prime Minister told the Russian President: “I know today’s era is not an era of war and I have spoken to you on the phone about this... Democracy, diplomacy and dialogue have kept the world together”.

“We will do our best to end this as soon as possible,” the Russian President said, but shifted the onus onto the Ukraine for shunning the path of negotiation.

Modi also met the Presidents of Iran, and Turkey, and the Prime Minister of the host nation Uzbekistan. Despite pressure mounting from various quarters, India stood its ground on Russia, its most-trusted veto in the United Nations.

While New Delhi remained nimble to the fast-changing contours of geopolitics around Ukraine, it has not let itself be browbeaten by others. It walked through the duplicitous position of many European powers that are still heavily-dependent on Russia for their energy needs, giving away freebie advice to developing nations to stop funding Ukraine war by cutting off Moscow from their suppliers’ list.

India has constantly engaged with its trusted ally Russia; a position driven by its national interest. Since the Ukraine war, Indian refiners have boosted imports from Russia to a record 757,000 barrels per day in April-August, compared with 20,000 bpd a year earlier.

The trade ties are on a definite upswing. Russia, the biggest oil producer in the SCO group, has also overtaken the United States to emerge as India's fourth-largest coal supplier as well, nearly doubling the import in the last six months.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introducing a mechanism since last July to settle international trade in rupees to keep off the impact of huge depreciation in global currencies is a step widely perceived as helping trade with Russia.

Though India never publicly criticised Russia for Ukraine, a move that in any way would have brought nothing but a few rounds of Western applause, it has consistently invoked the United Nations Charter to reiterate its position to respect “territorial integrity and sovereignty of states. Samarkand declaration uses the formulation that the SCO member countries’ reaffirm their commitment to peaceful settlement of differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation.”

However, with Russia-China ties growing stronger, the way the West will look at these countries, and the SCO bloc where they are the most inalienable parts, will continue to get difficult, bringing in a fair number of diplomatic headaches for India.

Both Russia and China have become shriller in their posturing against the United States. Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Putin have been talking about the US plotting the so-called colour revolution — the anti-regime movements that led to the collapse of many long-serving rulers since 2004.

The latest strategic concept from North Atlantic Treaty Organisation see Russia as hostile as it had seen the Soviet Union in 1960’s, and China as an all-consuming threat and figures prominently for the first time. With NATO looking for countering a Russia-China axis, the Euro-centric character of NATO might alter.

National interest has always driven the foreign policy of the countries. As India is now uniquely placed as a country that all blocs could count in, its strong ties with Russia is a definite advantage for New Delhi.