The visit of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to India in the midst of the Russia-Ukraine war and the ensuing peace talks mediated by the United States is reflective of “multilateralism” and “strategic autonomy”, as opposed to the bulldozing and unilateral ways of superpowers. In earlier days, the two “blocs” (USA-led and USSR-led) insisted on predefined and conformist tendencies.
However, the end of the Cold War with the implosion of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s led many to prematurely posit the USA as the sole, definitive, and unchallenged superpower. Commentators in the 1990s, such as the former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, noted, “We are the indispensable nation”, while Charles Krauthammer claimed, “The centre of world power is the unchallenged superpower, the United States, attended by its Western allies”, and the political scientist Samuel P Huntington thundered, “The United States is the sole state with pre-eminence in every domain of power-economic, military, diplomatic, ideological, technological, and cultural.”
Ironically, the concurrent diminishment of multilateral platforms such as the United Nations added to the misplaced superiority of the USA. Even though history has repeatedly taught that global dominance is never permanent, the ostrich-like behaviour of the USA has prevented it from recognising the sudden emergence of an expansionist China, or the more measured rise of India. Unipolarity was a seductive idea that lulled the USA into a false sense of invulnerability and hubris as it imperiously (and selectively) launched its War on Terror. However, it took twenty years of the longest, most inconclusive, and most expensive war against a ragtag militia, namely the Taliban, for the USA to be humbled. In recent times, the US has been made to eat humble pie in various other interventions across the globe — yet many within the corridors of power in Washington DC still harbour dated notions of grandiosity, imperiousness, and authority.
US President Donald Trump’s rallying cry of MAGA (Make America Great Again) is born from that same fount of presumed invincibility, which routinely leads to open threats, coercion, and even bullying. This unrestrained lust for power in Washington DC does not spare any friend or “ally”, as the likes of India, Canada, Mexico, or even NATO countries (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) are fair game for arm-twisting, as far as Trump is concerned. During his first presidency, he targeted Delhi for its civilisational relations with Iran, seeking to debar them from trading with each other, as Iran was unfairly and unilaterally sanctioned by Trump after reneging on the Iran nuclear deal. Similarly, deep displeasure was expressed with India as it sought the S-400 missile systems from Russia-even though the US had not done anything substantial to support India against China during the tense 2020 face-off.
Today, in his second presidency, Trump has further derailed and vitiated relations with allies as he has pursued patent tariff wars without any care or consideration for their sensitivities and urgencies. The ham-handedness of Trump has led to some unthinkable portents, as was optically captured in the surreal moments of bonhomie between the troika of Vladimir Putin, Narendra Modi, and Xi Jinping, chatting on the sidelines of a meeting and giving a loud thumbs-down to Trump’s unilateralism. While there may be too much bloody history between Delhi and Beijing to suggest anything beyond symbolism at this stage, the fact remains that the persistent unreasonableness of the USA under Trump can lead to the stitching together of counter-intuitive alliances (which may be tactical rather than strategic) as a rebound effect of the pressures exerted by Trump.
India hosts its long-time and dependable ally, Russia, as it juggles multiple balls in the air to avoid attracting further punitive tariffs from the US, while still extracting the necessary wherewithal from Russia, which has historically been forthcoming, accommodating, and reasonable in commercial terms. This forms part of India’s newfound “strategic autonomy”, which affords it the dignity to pursue diplomacy and relationships that are favourable to its own citizens, first and foremost. India is simply too large a sovereign state-and even too significant an “idea”-to act like a vassal state of the USA that must kowtow to all its diktats.
This is not to suggest that India should sever its growing and natural ties with the USA, but rather to nuance and assert itself to levels that are mutually beneficial, not exclusively skewed towards one side. Russia under Putin has demonstrated an accommodating template, having not insisted upon India or imposed conditionalities even as India went into overdrive to build relations with the “West”, especially the US. Meanwhile, India reciprocated in kind by not militating against Russian interests (Delhi took a muted stand on Ukraine that was not anti-Russia) wherever it could.
It is this lack of reciprocal accommodation and respect that blinds the policies of the Trump administration and could translate into alternative pressure groupings, potentially composed of the unlikeliest partners. While visits by a Russian head of state have always warranted a high-profile welcome, this time the warmth, pomp, and display reflect a sense of defiance, independence, and an inherent sovereign pride and dignity in the face of pettiness and pressure exerted ungracefully by the Trump administration.
The writer, a military veteran, is a former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry; views are personal
