America Still Hasn’t Accepted That India Has The Right To Determine Its Own Interests

America might manage to win some hearts and minds in what’ll soon be the world’s most populous country through its cultural exports, and there’ll always be those who’ll be attracted to its official narrative about whatever it may be, but the fact of the matter is that the US’ leadership and those strategists who inform its policymakers don’t truly appreciate India.

The Indian-American Strategic Partnership is supposed to be one of equals who treat each other with respect, but it’s come to be characterized since the start of the year as a lopsided relationship where America arrogantly regards itself as the so-called “senior partner”. The past eight months since the latest phase of the Ukrainian Conflict started have seen the US aggressively attempt to coerce India into unilaterally conceding on its objective national interests by pressuring it to cut off ties with Russia.

That rising multipolar Great Power has proudly rebuffed this unfriendly meddling in its sovereign affairs, yet it still continues unabated. The latest such attempt was on display during Tuesday’s State Department press briefing when spokesman Ned Price arrogantly acted as though his declining unipolar hegemon is the authority on its partner’s interests. According to him, India’s democratically elected and universally recognized leadership is allegedly contradicting those interests by retaining ties with Russia.

He of course didn’t say so directly, but that message was clearly implied when he said that “it is not only in the interest of Ukraine, it is not only in the interest of the region, of the collective interests that India decrease its dependence on Russia over time, but it’s also in India’s own bilateral interest, given what we’ve seen from Russia.” While Delhi is expected to react diplomatically to this egregious disrespect, if it even does so publicly that is, there’s no doubt that its leadership and people were incredibly offended.

The only authority on any country’s national interests is its legitimate government. Others at home and abroad can share their views on this very sensitive issue, but it’s unacceptable whenever a foreign government directly dictates to its counterparts what their interests are supposed to be. By doing so, America is showing the world that it still hasn’t accepted that India has the right to determine its own interests, let alone pursue them in accordance with its leadership’s related vision.

This is the polar opposite stance of the one practiced by Russia, whose President recently praised Prime Minister Modi and the Indian people for their principled independence and ambitious drive respectively. Moscow wouldn’t ever think about disrespecting Delhi and the nearly one and a half billion people who its leadership represents by daring to dictate their interests to them. The very fact that Washington did this without a second thought shows that it takes its strategic relations with them for granted.

The Indian people are aware of this as well as proven by the prestigious Observer Research Foundation’s recent survey of youth’s attitudes towards foreign affairs. The data indicated that the plural majority of them regard Russia as their rising Great Power’s most reliable partner and are also optimistic that it’ll remain their top partner across the coming future. To be sure, many also have similar views of the US as well, but the indisputable fact is that the plural majority favor Russia in these regards over the US.

America might manage to win some hearts and minds in what’ll soon be the world’s most populous country (if it isn’t so already according to some reports) through its cultural exports, and there’ll always be those who’ll be attracted to its official narrative about whatever it may be, but the fact of the matter is that the US’ leadership and those strategists who inform its policymakers don’t truly appreciate India. If they felt otherwise, then they’d never allow their representatives to arrogantly dictate its interests.