oppn parties Testing Time For Tightrope Diplomacy By India

Story Of The Day

Assessee Not Responsible For Ensuring TDS Is Paid To The Government: Delhi HC
OPINIONS : Strongly Expressed

January 22, 2025

People Are Talking About

Rohit Warns Sarfaraz, Police Use It To Warn Two-Wheeler Riders

News Snippets

  • Sikh extremists attacked a cinema hall in London that was playing Kangana Ranaut's controversial film 'Emergency'
  • A Delhi court directed the investigating agencies to senstize officers to collect nail clippings, fingernail scrappings or finger swab in order to get DNA profile as direct evidence of sexual attack is often not present and might result in an offender going scot free
  • Uniform Civil Code rules cleared by state cabinet, likely to be implemented in the next 10 days
  • Supreme Court reiterates that there is no point in arresting the accused after the chargesheet has been filed and the investigation is complete
  • Kolkata court sentences Sanjoy Roy, the sole accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case, to life term. West Bengal government and CBI to appeal in HC for the death penalty
  • Supreme Court stays criminal defamation case against Rahul Gandhi for his remarks against home minister Amit Shah in Jharkhand during the AICC plenary session
  • Government reviews import basket to align it with the policies of the Trump administration
  • NCLT orders liquidation of GoAir airlines
  • Archery - Indian archers bagged 2 silver in Nimes Archery tournament in France
  • Stocks make impressive gain on Monday - Sensex adds 454 points to 77073 and Nifty 141 points to 23344
  • D Gukesh draws with Fabiano Caruana in the Tata Steel chess tournament in the Netherlands
  • Women's U-19 T20 WC - In a stunning game, debutants Nigeria beat New Zealand by 2 runs
  • Rohit Sharma to play under Ajinkye Rahane in Mumbai's Ranji match against J&K
  • Virat Kohli to play in Delhi's last group Ranji trophy match against Saurashtra. This will be his first Ranji match in 12 years
  • The toll in the Rajouri mystery illness case rose to 17 even as the Centre sent a team to study the situation
Calling the case not 'rarest of rare', a court in Kolkata sentenced Sanjay Roy, the only accused in the R G Kar rape-murder case to life in prison until death
oppn parties
Testing Time For Tightrope Diplomacy By India

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2022-03-31 07:50:03

About the Author

Sunil Garodia The India Commentary view

As the world grapples with the tensions unleashed by the war in Ukraine, the improvement in the Covid situation in India has meant that a host of foreign government big-wigs are making a beeline to Delhi for in-person meetings with the Indian government to discuss the situation. After the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (which was of course as per the norm between the two countries to hold an annual meet of the top leaders and was the first in-person meeting after two years), the Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi came calling to invite Prime Minister Modi for the Brics summit in China later this year. The chasm between the Indian and Japanese positions on the Ukraine was hard to miss as PM Kishida asked India to adopt a tougher line against Russia. 

Currently, the German security and foreign policy advisor Jen Plotner is in Delhi holding discussions with foreign minister S Jaishankar and NSA Ajit Doval. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, US deputy NSA Daleep Singh and British foreign secretary will also be in the capital this week. Before this, the European Union special envoy for the Indo-Pacific region, Gabriele Visentin held talks with external affairs ministry. While India’s neutral stance on the war in Ukraine after it abstained from voting on all the resolutions moved against Russia in the UN has made EU, US and UK put pressure on it to change its stance and condemn the Russian attack, the Russians obviously are pleased with the situation and would like India to remain neutral.

But India's main problem is that if the war continues for long, as it seems it will after the Russians reneged on their word to scale down operations in Kyiv, and if more civilian lives are lost, India will have to take a stand against Russia sometime in the near future. That is why it is imperative that the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov (the US has said that it is "deeply disappointed" with this visit at this point of time) is made aware of the pressures on India. He must also be told that the war must end and the issue should be resolved through negotiations, especially as Ukraine has made it clear that it is not going to join Nato.

Although the US and other western nations have till now said that they understand India's compulsions in remaining 'neutral', things will change if the war does not end soon. India will be under increasing pressure to support the US-led sanctions and suspend all business with Russia. Hence, India must use its good relations with the Russians to make them return to the negotiating table. The next few weeks will be a huge test for India's tightrope diplomacy. Although it is clear that the Russians want Volodymyr Zelenskyy to go and want to install a puppet regime in Ukraine, there can be a middle ground and all parties must strive to discover it to end the sufferings of the people of Ukraine. 

Other Stories You Make Like

Editorials

Turmoil In Mollywood

Turmoil In Mollywood

NDA 3.0: Coalition Dharma

NDA 3.0: Coalition Dharma

In Depth

Supreme Court Gets Strict On Child Pornography

Supreme Court Gets Strict On Child Pornography

Editor's Pick

Budapest Chess Olympiad: India Are World Team Champions

Budapest Chess Olympiad: India Are World Team Champions
© 2014 India Commentary. All rights reserved.