No. of Recommendations: 20
Search for, eh?
Tell me more of this ‘BRICS’ thing. It mush have been recently formed, right?
A quibble. I am writing on a message board, not carefully editing a document. India of course doesn't have to "search" for Russia or China. I meant that having lost the United States as a dependable and somewhat constant ally (one who was at least minimally cognizant of the need to conduct international relations with an eye to the domestic needs of other countries), India is now looking at other countries with which to foster greater connections and deeper engagement in order to replace that loss. They are searching among their existing relationships for those that can be deepened and strengthened.
They have unsurprisingly turned to Russia and China, both of whom are regional superpowers and their #2 and #4 trading partners by volume (#3 is the UAE, further reflecting India's dependence on imported oil). An absolutely predictable turn in response to the U.S. savaging the economic relationship by imposing such high tariffs.
You're reaching for as many ancillary issues as possible to avoid engaging with the fact that the effort to use secondary sanctions to get India to stop buying Russian oil have backfired spectacularly. India and China have a deeply complicated relationship, but since the U.S. has elected to wage a trade war against both countries simultaneously (itself a phenomenally foolish strategy) they now have accelerated their efforts at rapprochement. They're not headed towards being each other's closest and deepest allies, since there are still plenty of tension points between them. But our efforts to cultivate India as part of an active resistance to China's economic expansion and hegemony in the region have now been deeply damaged, if not completely crippled. There had not been a bilateral summit since the 2020 border conflict that had put a deep chill on their relations. Xi wasted absolutely no time seizing the incredible opportunity that Trump had given China. Now Modi's in China, meeting with Xi and Putin and calling on India and China to be partners rather than rivals. Because the U.S. has decided that we are India's rival, and not their partner in containing China.
Just...phenomenally dumb. Shortsighted beyond belief, and one that will have significant consequences for our efforts to contain China. Not only did Trump not obtain his near term goal (stopping Indian oil imports from Russia), he managed to drive India closer to both Russia and China.
