The US President Joe Biden’s ‘shaky ground’ jibe on the Indian position on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict has sparked anger among top Indian defence analysts. According to top global affairs experts, India’s response to Russia vis-a-vis Ukraine as “shaky” is nothing but a typical US strategy to corner India.
Some have even pointed out the doublespeak of the US while targeting the US and EU allies for continued energy purchases from Russia (by one account, up to $600 million per day) while bearing down on India. Others pointed to a lack of US concern over China‘s ingress into India.
“Here’s the paradox: At a time when India confronts China’s border aggression, including its threat of a full-scale war, Biden won’t open his mouth on that aggression. Yet an insensitive Biden calls “shaky” India’s response to a distant war he helped provoke with a forward policy,” tweeted Brahma Chellaney, a strategic affairs commentator.
Some experts also agree with the Russian version of the unfolding events — that it is the US and Nato provocation that caused Moscow to respond.
“Uncalled for remark on India by Biden. US policy toward Russia has been teetering on shaky foundations since the end of the Cold War and & now the structure is collapsing. Why should India pay for US folly in drawing Ukraine into Nato? US sanctions are hurting us and we should support them?” asked Kanwal Sibal, former India foreign secretary.
Some US experts hold similar views but they have largely been shut out of the American discourse replete with calls for stronger action against Russia. Among the critics are political scientist John Mearsheimer, who foresaw current developments as far back as 2015 (his talk on the subject has 22 million views on YouTube).
“The Russians made it unequivocally clear at the time that they viewed this (Nato expansion into Ukraine) as an existential threat, and they drew a line in the sand,” Mearsheimer said in a New Yorker interview earlier this month.
Bidens’s singling out of India amid claims of a united global front against Russia is questionable considering many countries, including China, South Africa, Brazil, and many African and West Asian countries, have not backed the US and Nato campaign against Moscow.
