America’s “Concern” Over India’s Participation In The Vostok 2022 Drills Is Condescending
The entire Global South is taking note of this, even if they all remain silent for diplomatic reasons connected to advancing their own objective national interests, since everyone now sees how terribly the US treats its own “partners”. The lesson is that America only sees its “partners” as vassals and always throws a fit whenever they behave as equals.
Russia is hosting the Vostok 2022 multilateral military drills in its Far Eastern region from 1-7 September, which count multipolar countries like China, India, and several others as participants. It’s Moscow’s international legal right to carry out such exercises on its territory, yet the US-led West’s Golden Billion is dead-set against anything that this Eurasian Great Power does in support of its objective national interests, let alone when this proves that it’s far from “isolated” like the Mainstream Media (MSM) falsely claims. It’s against this context that America just expressed “concern” over India’s participation in the Vostok 2022 drills.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had the following exchange with a reporter about it on Tuesday:
“Q A question on — India is participating in military exercises with Russia. Given that India is a partner of the United States and Asia, how does the administration feel about that kind of relationship?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: So, the United States has concerns about any country exercising with Russia while Russia wages a unprovoked, brutal war against Ukraine. But, of course, every participating country will make its own decisions. And I’ll leave it at that.
Q Why not put any pressure on India? I mean, there’s been pressure on China — you know, “Don’t help Russia.” Here you have India, a partner of the United States, working with Russia on the military.
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I — my first — my first sentence there is saying that we have concerns, and any country exercising with Russia while Russia is waging this unprovoked —
Q But no plans to take action to do anything about it?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I don’t have anything else to share. But we have — we have been pretty public — I’ve been asked this question with other countries as well, and we’ve been pretty consistent in our — in our statements.”
This attitude is condescending and thus unacceptable, but regrettably par for the course for the US when it comes to India or any other country that practices an independent foreign policy.
Ever since the latest American-provoked phase of the Ukrainian Conflict, Washington has sought to aggressively impose its zero-sum will onto Delhi by pressuring it into condemning and sanctioning Moscow. Despite completely failing and actually having served to further accelerate the comprehensive expansion of the Russian-Indian Strategic Partnership during this pivotal moment in the global systemic transition to multipolarity, State Department spokesman Ned Price recently reaffirmed that his declining unipolar hegemon will continue clinging to this counterproductive policy of meddling in its official “partner’s” foreign policy.
It therefore isn’t surprising that Jean-Pierre picked up the torch by declaring that her country “has concerns” about India flexing its international right to practice an independent foreign policy aimed at strengthening its strategic autonomy in the New Cold War. Just like when the American Consulate in Mumbai behaved like viceroys when demanding earlier this summer that India not allow Russian ships to dock at its ports and thus prompted a fierce response from its hosts, so too is this latest act of neo-imperial arrogance bound to offend policymakers in Delhi even if they don’t publicly react to this particular provocation.
Observers should note, however, that India is still carefully balancing between the US-led West’s Golden Billion and the BRICS-led Global South of which it’s part as proven by reports that it politely declined to participate in Vostok 2022’s naval drills due to concerns from fellow Quad partner Japan about them taking place in territory that Tokyo claims as its own. To be clear, this shouldn’t be interpreted as Delhi taking their side over Moscow’s, but just that it doesn’t see any benefit to its objective national interests in doing anything that could be maliciously spun to misportray its principled neutrality towards international disputes.
Considering this, America should actually praise India for being respectful enough of their fellow Quad partner’s concerns instead of condescendingly expressing its own “concern” about Delhi’s participation in those Russian-led multilateral military drills in the first place. The very fact that this didn’t happen shows just how much the US disrespects India by refusing to recognize its equal status in the eyes of international law and attendant right to practice an independent foreign policy. The entire Global South is taking note of this, even if they all remain silent for diplomatic reasons connected to advancing their own objective national interests, since everyone now sees how terribly the US treats its own “partners”.
India hasn’t just taken leadership of the global de-dollarization trend, which happened last week after it pioneered such a mechanism for facilitating bilateral trade with Russia before even China did according to BRICS International Forum President Purnima Anand, but it’s also the leader of other relevant Global South trends as well. Nobody expected China to unilaterally concede on its objective national interests, let alone by openly siding with the US against Russia, but everyone wondered what India would do once the latest US-provoked phase of the Ukrainian Conflict began seeing as how it rapidly expanded its strategic ties with that declining unipolar hegemon over the past decade.
Instead of submitting to vassal status by condemning and sanctioning Russia, India proudly stood its ground, which will inspire those of its Global South peers who hope to emulate its careful balancing act. Furthermore, they all now know what to expect from following in its footsteps after seeing how angrily America responded to its own partner exercising its international legal right to practice an independent foreign policy. If the US will disrespect a rising multipolar Great Power like India, then it’ll surely do the same – if not worse – to comparatively weaker and smaller multipolar states as well. The lesson is that America only sees its “partners” as vassals and always throws a fit whenever they behave as equals.