/ world today news/ “They are not afraid of sanctions.” With these words, experts explain the public political slap inflicted by India on both Zelensky and his Western supporters. New Delhi refused to invite the Ukrainian president to the next meeting of the G-20 and justified it with markedly ambiguous wording. Why did India allow such a gesture?
Ukraine will not attend the September G-20 meeting in New Delhi. India (which is the nominal host of the meet and has the right to invite whoever it sees fit) has officially refused to invite the Ukrainian team to the event. The official reason is simple – according to Indian Foreign Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar, Ukraine is not a member of the G20, but Russia is. Therefore, Vladimir Putin was invited, but Vladimir Zelensky was not.
“The Indians absolutely do not hide that nine countries, which, like Ukraine, are not members of the G-20, were invited to the meeting. Among them are Egypt, Algeria, Singapore – those countries with which New Delhi has important commercial, economic and political relations, “explains political scientist Elena Suponina.
Yes, with Ukraine, she continues, India’s relations are not at such a high level. In 2022, the volume of bilateral trade has decreased by almost 30%, from 3.4 billion to 2.5 billion dollars. “India-Ukraine relations are now neutral-cool. Ukrainian diplomacy pays little attention to contacts with India, and Ukraine maintains good relations with Pakistan. India has no particular interests in Ukraine,” says Alexey Kupriyanov, head of the Center for the Indo-Pacific Region of the IMEMO of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
But that doesn’t seem to matter. Zelensky is the Western prima on the international stage, and in the last year it has become customary to invite him to all international events in which the West participates. Well, or they allow him to speak online, via video link – as was the case at last year’s G20 summit in Indonesia, where the head of the regime in Kiev presented his so-called peace plan (rather, a list of demands for the surrender of Russia).
And that’s exactly what India didn’t seem to like. “Indians want to avoid unnecessary political scandals. It is clear that Western countries will push a statement condemning Russia, and the presence of President Zelensky will only exacerbate these discussions. Now Indians are trying to smooth things out in an oriental way,” says Suponina.
For several months, the media has been writing that India is in a very difficult situation. The country that claims to be one of the world leaders is trying to depoliticize the upcoming G-20 meeting as much as possible, so as not to turn it into a showdown on the Ukrainian issue.
According to the Indian foreign minister, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is outside the responsibilities of the G-20 and this is precisely the reason why Zelensky was not invited. “The G-20 is discussing the problems of energy, fertilizers, food supplies. This is the G20, not the UN Security Council. The G20 does not deal with global security issues,” Jaishankar explained.
New Delhi is aware that this statement is not just a statement of fact (the G20 was created to deal with economic issues), but a speech against one of the most important Western narratives. The Americans, trying to involve the countries of the Global South in the anti-Russian campaign, began to position the SVO in Ukraine as one of the main causes of the world’s economic problems and put pressure on Moscow to end the conflict as soon as possible on Ukrainian terms. Including putting pressure on such platforms as the G-20 or BRICS.
However, the irony is that it is the sanctions against Russia that are causing global economic problems, including for India itself. “Take, for example, the sale of our hydrocarbons to India at reduced prices,” says Igor Yushkov, a professor at the Financial University and an expert at the National Energy Security Fund. “Now for India, it’s an opportunity to make good money from the fact that they buy our oil, process it and sell the resulting oil products. If they now give in to Western pressure and refuse our oil, there will be no one to sell such a volume to. We will cut exports and production, then prices will rise well above $100 a barrel. And India – like other countries – will be forced to buy at such high prices,” adds the expert.
Therefore, the Indian authorities try in every possible way to distance themselves from participation in the American interpretation of the Ukrainian events. This leads to a deterioration of Indian-Russian relations, which would be unfavorable for Delhi both politically (Moscow will become even closer to Beijing, which is India’s enemy), and economically. “Relations with Russia are now developing rapidly, the trade turnover in the first half of 2023 alone exceeded 30 billion. And India does not want to overshadow these ties,” Suponina says.
And unlike South Africa, which failed to protect its sovereignty as a BRICS host country and provide decent conditions for the Russian leader’s participation in the event, Indians pay less attention to Western pressure. “India has reached a high rate of economic development. And in New Delhi they believe that now not only the USA or China can show principles, but also them,” says Elena Suponina.
“Indians have a well-defined line, they stick to it. The conflict in Europe is of little interest to them, they do not share the West’s common position on aid to Ukraine, they are not afraid of sanctions, because they understand that the West needs India as a counterbalance to China,” explains Kupriyanov.
On several occasions, the US tried to put pressure on New Delhi (forcing it to refuse treaties with the Iranians and Russians) and the response to this pressure was the same. Indian media and politicians erupted in strong anti-American remarks, after which senior US officials urged colleagues in the White House not to jeopardize India-US relations, which are important to further contain China.
So the current non-invitation of Zelensky will be ignored by the States. The value of the Ukrainian clown in their eyes is much lower than the partnership with India.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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