{"id":32557,"date":"2023-02-24T05:56:29","date_gmt":"2023-02-24T00:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=32557"},"modified":"2025-04-19T13:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T08:28:11","slug":"evolution-of-indias-position-on-the-russia-ukraine-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/evolution-of-indias-position-on-the-russia-ukraine-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Evolution of India\u2019s position on the Russia-Ukraine War"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>News Summary: Evolution of India\u2019s position on the Russia-Ukraine War<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>How India\u2019s position on the Russia-Ukraine war evolved over time?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>As the Russia-Ukraine war completes a year, the United Nations General Assembly is discussing a resolution calling for the need to reach, as soon as possible, a comprehensive, just and lasting peace.<\/li>\n<li>Various countries, including Ukraine, have urged India to support a UNGA resolution timed for the first anniversary of the war.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How India\u2019s position on the Russia-Ukraine war evolved over time?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Strategic autonomy<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>For India, the Ukraine war has been an opportunity to practice strategic autonomy.<\/li>\n<li>Adopting a nuanced neutrality Delhi has maintained its relationship with Moscow and worked around Western sanctions to buy oil from Russia.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>As much as 25% of India\u2019s oil purchase is now from Russia, from less than 2% before the war.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>India\u2019s voting at UN and its bodies<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/btkU4H0Ykfog_vdb8H7fZN_WXAUTU1-xW5FSPFJiq0C7FzVl4YI0iy7_LF-OuAZpPgCvIWpZ0aLGqhjzVjs0PafIUtTY-K6U_Z_wA1fZ3uSR-rsOAI9rdmQSUElrdk_4tlppBaCcpNcl1WX0KC_Kfw\" alt=\"\" \/><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Image caption: India&#8217;s voting record<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In the last year, the UN and its bodies have voted on resolutions pertaining to the Russia-Ukraine war at least 39 times: 38 times since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24 and once in January 2023.<\/li>\n<li>India, which has <u>maintained a diplomatic balancing act and has walked the tightrope between US-led West and Russia<\/u>, has abstained on most occasions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>More calibrated stance adopted by Delhi in the past one year<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>So far, India has taken a calibrated stance based on its own national interests.\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>It had said it was deeply disturbed, but did not name Russia at all.<\/li>\n<li>It called for cessation of violence and hostilities, which is permanent in nature.<\/li>\n<li>It had flagged its core concern about Indian nationals. About 22,000 Indian nationals, mostly students, had had to be evacuated by special planes.<\/li>\n<li>It called for respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, and respect for UN charter and international law.<\/li>\n<li>It advocated diplomacy. It maintained that dialogue and diplomacy is the path forward.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>During the early phase of the war, India relied on balancing act since it needed cooperation from both Russian and Ukrainian sides to evacuate its citizens from the conflict zone.\n<ul>\n<li>After its last batch of students were airlifted by the second week of March 2022, the Indian position focussed on the other elements: <u>respect for UN charter, territorial sovereignty and integrity<\/u>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Although, after the Bucha massacre &#8211; in which innocent civilians were killed &#8211; India joined the western chorus in condemning the incident.\n<ul>\n<li>It even asked for an international probe.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Nukes must be off the table<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>As Russian President Putin and other Russian leaders made nuclear threats, India expressed concern.<\/li>\n<li>India categorically said that no side should resort to the nuclear option.\n<ul>\n<li>Later, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief said PM Modi\u2019s concerns about the use of nuclear weapons have had an impact on the Russians amid Ukraine war.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>India and the issue of food grains<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>New Delhi was approached by Ukraine and other partners to intercede when the issue of food grains being blocked by Russia was raised.<\/li>\n<li>India stepped in to convey its message to Moscow.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>India &amp; G-20 declaration in Bali<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>PM Modi\u2019s said to Russian President in Samarkand in September 2022 on the sidelines of the SCO: that \u201cthis is not an era of war\u201d.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>This became India\u2019s mantra, which even found its way into the G-20 declaration in Bali.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>First virtual summit of the Voice of the Global South<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>New Delhi\u2019s position also evolved as it felt the impact of the rising energy prices and prices of commodities went up.<\/li>\n<li>In January 2023, India hosted the first virtual summit of the Voice of the Global South, where it raised the issue of rising prices of food, fuel and fertiliser.<\/li>\n<li>It also flagged the concerns of the developing and the less-developed world on energy and food security. This will now be the consistent theme till the G-20 summit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>India and the upcoming G-20 summit<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>With a year of geopolitical turmoil due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, India \u2014 as the chair of G-20 \u2014 will face the challenge of negotiating a declaration while balancing between Russia and the West.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>So far, India has walked on a diplomatic tightrope while maintain strategic autonomy in its decision making and promoting its national interests.<\/li>\n<li>But the longer the war continues, the more pressure on India from the Western alliance to choose the right side.\n<ul>\n<li>E.g., this week, Ukraine asked India to support a UNGA resolution timed for the first anniversary of the war, asking Russia to withdraw from its territory.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In this context, serious diplomatic efforts needs to be made to end the war and the upcoming G-20 presidency can be used as a platform towards this direction.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1)<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>What is strategic autonomy?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Strategic autonomy denotes the ability of a state to pursue its national interests and adopt its preferred foreign policy without being constrained in any manner by other states.<\/p>\n<h3>\n<strong>Q2)\u00a0Where is Ukraine?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Ukraine, country located in eastern Europe, the second largest on the continent after Russia. The capital is Kyiv, located on the Dnieper River in north-central Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-global\/one-year-of-war-in-ukraine-how-indias-position-has-evolved-over-time-8463321\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>One year of War in Ukraine: How India\u2019s position has evolved over time<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/world-news\/cia-william-burns-russia-ukraine-war-russian-president-vladimir-putin-cia-chief-s-praise-for-pm-modi-as-he-raised-nuke-use-concern-russia-101671338046801.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Hindustan Times<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Adopting a nuanced neutrality, India has maintained its relationship with Moscow and the west.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":32558,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}