The 24th edition of Malabar exercise was concluded in November 2020 (in Phase-I and Phase-II) with a notable comeback of Australia after a decade. The invite to join the exercise was quickly accepted by Australia and was observed as a collective resolve by four major Indo-pacific democracies and also all QUAD members i.e. United States, India, Australia and Japan, to support an open and prosperous Indo-pacific.
On December 09, 2020, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticized the QUAD mentioning it as a “devious policy” by western powers to engage India in “Anti-China Games”. Moscow also condemned the United States’ Indo-Pacific policy and has termed the Quad as a ‘divisive and exclusivist concept’. Lavrov also accused the West of undermining Russia’s privileged relations with India.
India’s MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastav, responding to India’s all-weather ally Russia, mentioned that India doesn’t see Indo-pacific as a ‘strategy’ or a ‘club of limited members’ and also reminded that India-Russia ties stand independent of any third-party. China has also lashed out at QUAD mentioning it as a China-containment policy. The Chinese State Counsellor and foreign minister Wang Yi stated that the US wanted to use this grouping as the basis to build an “Indo-Pacific NATO”.
India, on several occasions, has reiterated its adherence to a free and open Indo-pacific (FOIP) and its engagement within the region being strictly based on its national interest. On December 11, 2020, while delivering a keynote address at the Global Dialogue Security Summit, CDS Bipin Rawat specified a need for change in approach to security from unilateral to multilateral mode which mandates increasing training engagement with partner nations in order to fortify the future.
Russia’s recent statement lies in tandem with Chinese skepticism towards India’s participation in QUAD and the Malabar Exercise. Lavrov’s remarks can also be seen as a testimony of increasing Chinese influence on Russia’s foreign policy and its deepening economic ties with China. The trade between Russia and China has doubled after the western sanctions, which amounts to around $108 billion. The two countries have also signed a $400 billion deal over 30 years to supply gas to China along the 1,800 miles long pipeline known as the Power of Siberia. Russia’s central bank has increased its Chinese currency reserves from less than one per cent to over 13%. China has also surpassed Germany as the principal supplier of industrial plant and technology.
Despite the risk of financial sanctions from the US, India has continued with its expansive defence relationship with Russia, which includes the signing of mega arms deals. On October 5 (2020), India had signed the $5.43 billion (over Rs 39,000 crore) deal for five squadrons of the Russian S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems. The US has already imposed sanctions on China for acquiring the same S-400 systems under its new law called CAATSA (Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act), which seeks to prevent countries from buying Russian weapons or Iranian oil. On the other hand, India has also signed a number lucrative defence contracts with the US as well, costing $17 billion approximately. The US has already bagged lucrative Indian defence contracts worth $17 billion since 2007 which includes one of the recent $2.6 billion deal with a major American defence firm Lockheed Martin. Under this deal, India will be buying 24 MH-60 Romeo, world’s most advanced maritime helicopters, for Indian Navy.
It is important to see how India balances itself within the two emerging power blocks with its bilateral and multilateral engagement with the US, Russia and China. Sumit Ganguly, in his article in Foreign Policy (July 2020), recommends for India to re-calculate its relationship with Russia. Ganguly suggests that a strategic partnership with Russia based on the absence of fundamental conflicts of interest and a shared belief that some form of multipolarity is better than any sort of Sino-U.S. condominium and is important for India.
India and Russia have been members of various international bodies such as the United Nations, BRICS, RIC, G20 and SCO and have supported each other on a wide range of issues from time to time. A robust strategic partnership based on five major components i.e. politics, defence, civil, nuclear energy, anti-terrorism cooperation and space, is bound to continue and will help India compensate for its engagement with US by means of QUAD or ‘2+2 Dialogue’.
