Europe must ‘wake up’ to risk of conflict in Asia
▶ India’s foreign minister says West has ‘turned a blind eye’ to country’s power struggle with China
India’s foreign minister has said Russia’s war in Ukraine represents a “wake-up call” for Europe.
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s comments yesterday served as a rebuttal to a leading European politician who had issued a warning that the crisis would have consequences for New Delhi’s interests in Asia.
On Monday, the European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen sounded caution for India over the Ukraine conflict and said the crisis would affect the Asia-Pacific region, where India and China are engaged in a power struggle.
But on the second day of the Raisina Dialogue, India’s biggest foreign policy event, Mr Jaishankar dismissed the claims and accused the West of turning a blind eye to Asia.
“We’ve been hearing for the last two months a lot of arguments from Europe, saying there are things happening in Europe and Asia should worry about it, because this could happen in Asia,” Mr Jaishankar said.
“Guess what? Things have been happening in Asia for the last 10 years. Europe may not have looked at it, so this could be a wake-up call for Europe, not just in Europe. It could be a wake-up call for Europe to also look at Asia.”
Mr Jaishankar said Asia had been under pressure for a long time and that the rest of the world must recognise the challenges the region faces, which include territorial disputes and state-sponsored terrorism. He talked about last year’s Afghanistan crisis and said an “entire civil society was thrown under the bus by the world”.
Several western nations, including the US, have in recent weeks advised India that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could set a precedent and pose a threat to India’s security in the Asia-Pacific region, in which New Delhi has joined an informal US-led “quad” alliance to blunt China’s influence.
The latest warning came from Ms von der Leyen in her address at the Raisina Dialogue.
She said the European crisis was a “defining moment” and that nations’ decisions would determine politics and the state of the global economy.
“If we consider what it means for Europe and Asia that Russia and China have forged a seemingly unrestrained pact, they have declared that the friendship between them has no limits. There are no forbidden areas of co-operation,” she said.
India and China are regional rivals who have been engaged in a military confrontation along the disputed border in the northern Himalayan Ladakh region, which led to a brief full-scale war in late 1962. Tension has been simmering ever since, and two years ago a deadly brawl between Indian and Chinese patrols in the area caused diplomatic relations to cool.
India’s stance on Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has irritated much of the West, with US President Joe Biden describing New Delhi’s response to the crisis as “somewhat shaky”.
Moscow was India’s Cold War ally and is its largest supplier of weapons. Each nation considers the other to be a strategic partner.
But New Delhi’s refusal to explicitly condemn Moscow, as well as its attempts to increase energy supplies from Russia, have caused discomfort among its friends in the West.
Some diplomats have expressed the view that the Kremlin will not come to New Delhi’s rescue in the case of military confrontation with Beijing because of its proximity to China.
But several western governments have offered New Delhi enhanced security and energy co-operation in a bid to dilute Indian-Russian economic ties.
On a visit to India, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced an enhanced security and defence partnership with New Delhi, including a collaboration in jet fighter development and maritime surveillance.
On Monday, Ms von der Leyen announced a special council for trade and technology with New Delhi and said the ties between the EU and India were “a priority”.