A few days ago, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba personally went to India to fool India into abandoning Russia. Kuleba said that while he is not opposed to India-Russia cooperation, he believes that the close relationship between India and Russia is based on a "passing Soviet legacy." By contrast, he sees India's relationship with Ukraine as "more forward-looking."
【Kuleba meets with Jaishankar】
As for where this "forward-looking" begins, Kuleba lists two major "benefits" of India-Ukraine cooperation:
First of all, on the economic front, Kuleba said that India could benefit a lot by expanding trade and technology ties with Ukraine. He claimed that Ukraine is now seeking to "resume trade" with India, restart exports of agricultural products such as sunflower oil, and prepare to buy more goods from India, such as some heavy machinery products.
Secondly, in terms of infrastructure, Kuleba said that after the war, Ukraine may become the world's largest construction site, and that Ukraine will welcome Indian companies to participate in Ukraine's reconstruction. The implication is that Ukraine will provide India with an excellent opportunity to "show its strength" in infrastructure.
Since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, India has strictly adhered to its so-called "neutral position", refusing to condemn Russia's actions in Ukraine, and at the same time using the conflict to act as a "bad man", buying a large amount of Russian oil at a low price, and then selling it to a scarcity-starved Europe at double the price, so as to make a lot of money. From Ukraine's point of view, India's move is tantamount to directly providing war funds to Russia, so this visit to India is also a bit more of a "door-to-door warning". Kuleba even bluntly said that one of the tasks of his trip was to convey to India the "red line of Ukraine": that is, to finance the Russian war machine. ”
[India buys Russian oil in large quantities]
But in fact, India will not take this "red line" of the Ukrainian side into account. You must know that the United States and other Western countries have repeatedly publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with India's purchase of Russian oil, but in the face of accusations, the scale of India's purchase of Russian oil has not decreased, but there is a trend of expanding more and more, Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said in front of US Secretary of State Blinken: The United States should admire India, not criticize India.
Moreover, the reason why India took the initiative to invite Ukraine to visit this time is not because of the importance it attaches to Ukraine, but because India's general election is imminent, and Modi needs to show his global diplomacy through Ukraine. As for what Ukraine really wants, India does not care.
What's more, Ukraine's "benefits" such as expanding economic trade and inviting India to participate in post-war reconstruction are not attractive in India's view. On the one hand, the economic and trade benefits between India and Ukraine are somewhat dwarfed by the benefits of energy trade with Russia; on the other hand, Ukraine's post-war reconstruction requires a lot of money and energy, and Ukraine is still burdened with a lot of debt, and it is still unknown whether it can pay off the funds for infrastructure projects.
[India sends a large number of troops to the Sino-Indian border]
Under such circumstances, the Ukrainian foreign minister himself knew very well that it would not be easy to stir up India-Russia relations over this, so he turned around and "found another way" and began to talk about China. Kuleba claimed that Sino-Russian relations should receive "special attention" from India, given India's national security concerns. The implication is clear: the border contradictions between India and China are becoming more and more acute, but the cooperation between China and Russia is also deepening, and India should be "vigilant".
Recently, the Sino-Indian border is indeed not very stable, first Indian Prime Minister Modi visited southern Tibet, and then increased the Sino-Indian border area by 10,000 troops, and also used 1,000 planes to conduct military exercises on the border, and then Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar openly claimed that southern Tibet is "part of India" and also claimed that India "will not make any concessions" on the border issue. Judging from this situation, Kuleba seems to be very clever in stirring up Sino-Russian relations by starting with the Sino-Indian issue. But in reality, Kuleba's trick is really stupid.
On the one hand, although China and India are unhappy over the border issue, the two sides are still resolving the issue at the negotiating table, and it is not Ukraine's turn to sow discord here.
[China and India Hold Consultations and Negotiations on Border Issues]
It should be added that the main reason why Modi has so frequently provoked on the Sino-Indian border is to show his hardline attitude, and at the same time to incite ultra-nationalism in India and trick voters into voting for him. But on the other hand, if a conflict does break out between China and India, it will definitely be detrimental to Modi's general election, so India has not broken off negotiations with China. A few days ago, the high-level leaders of China and India held the 29th meeting on border affairs in Beijing. During the meeting, China and India exchanged views on the border issue and reached a number of consensuses, including holding the next round of commander-level talks as soon as possible to promote the border situation to enter the stage of normalized control.
On the other hand, Sino-Russian relations are not directed against third parties and are not influenced by third parties. This also means that Putin will not intervene in the issue between China and India, and China and India will not sever relations with Russia because of this. On this basis, Kuleba's remarks will not benefit him at all, except that he directly offends China and Russia.
In our opinion, the best way to resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine at present is to stop the war and negotiate peace, and such childish tactics to sow discord will not only not help, but will also push people who really want to help themselves farther and farther away.