The past 12 months have been tough for Indian diplomats as they tried to hold what has become the preferred pose for the Narendra Modi government on Ukraine: strategic autonomy. The steadiness shown by the South Block in dealing with the war, which completed a year on February 24, has really tested its core strength. India has performed well and it hopes to use this diplomatic flexibility in its role as president of the G20.
“I think India has been successful,’’ said former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal. Russia has not lost what it calls a ‘special military operation’; Ukraine is yet to win its ‘war of independence’. Despite the odds, India has managed to pull off its mission impossible.
It has been a year of balances. “We have satisfied both sides. The Russians, in fact, are more than satisfied. It was evident from President Vladimir Putin’s gesture of meeting with our National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in Moscow,’’ said Sibal. The meeting, breaking established protocol, was significant in its messaging. “The US had framed the issue as a moral one and suggested that we would be on the wrong side of history. But the discourse has changed. The meeting between American NSA Jake Sullivan and Doval illustrates that point and the need to take forward the engagement,’’ said Sibal.
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