Ukraine disaster more likely to affect India in some ways: Former diplomats

Express News Service

BENGALURU: The Russia-Ukraine disaster is more likely to affect India in some ways, together with the economic system which is simply rising from the consequences of COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to placing stress on the Indian authorities to steadiness its relations with Russia and the US.

Former diplomats with a deep understanding of the area and the evolving state of affairs advised The New Indian Express that whereas they should wait and see how the state of affairs develops additional to get a clearer image, the disaster leading to higher pressure between Russia and the West will affect India in some ways and at numerous ranges.

“If the US and the West gets bogged down in Europe, then the US focus on Asia, China and its maritime security will dilute a bit and that is not in our interest as we are very closely engaged with the US on Indo-Pacific initiative for maritime security,” PS Raghavan, a former diplomat and ex-chairman of National Security Advisory Board of India stated on Thursday.

At a political stage, if Russia-US, Russia-West relations change into tense then India’s relations with Russia change into difficult. “We then have pressure from India-Russia relations and pressure from India-US relations. We had this in the past, too, from 2014 onwards and we have managed to keep our two relationships separate. So, this will be a continuous challenge at the political level,” he stated.

India must steadiness its response because it wants US’ friendship, particularly given the risk to Indian borders from China and its makes an attempt to dominate the South China sea, whereas Russia has been its trusted ally for many years.

“India has to balance its reaction, support and everything so that you do not displease any of them and maintain their trust. You have to manage it. That is the most difficult situation for India. So far, India has managed to do it and we have called for de-escalation and resolution of the issue through discussions,” stated former Ambassador N Parthasarathi, a veteran diplomat with greater than three many years of service within the Indian Foreign service who served as India’s Ambassador to Republic of South Korea from 2005 to 2008 and to Senegal from 2008 to 2011. He hopes Russia will cease the battle and get again to the dialogue desk.

The former diplomats additionally expressed concern over sanctions imposed towards Russia impacting many nations, together with India. “Oil prices will rise resulting in an increase in input costs and that could impact the Indian economy that is just coming out of the COVID-19 impact,” stated Parthasarathi.

The US and the European Union have threatened excessive sanctions towards Russia. “Whatever sanctions they impose will have an impact on Russia and they will also have an impact on all of us. The globe is so inter-connected economically that it is very difficult to be insulated from the impact of economic sanctions,” stated Raghavan.