Is It All Up to India?

by Ted Snider Posted on July 07, 2022

In the global tug of war between a US led unipolar world and a Russia-China nurtured multipolar world, whichever side India throws its massive size behind will likely prevail, or at least not be defeated.

On the one side of the rope is the US with all its political, economic and military muscle. On the other is Russia and its massive and growing strategic partner, China. In the middle is India, the second largest country in the world and a growing power.

India maintains a friendly foot in both worlds. Long a partner of the US in containing China, India long played that same role for Russia, with whom it has long been a key friend. India is a member of the US led QUAD, whose purpose is to contain and deflate China while asserting US leadership over the management of Asia. There have been times in the twenty-first century when the US plan for pressing China back down has included nurturing India’s ascent to a major world power so it could be deputized as a reliable hegemon in the region. Today, still, the key to the QUAD is bringing India over to the US side.

But India is also a long and very close partner of Russia, and its relations with China have been improving for decades. It is a member of the QUAD but has restrained that organization. It has participated in it and supported it but maintained, unlike its American, Japanese and Australian partners, that the QUAD is “not against somebody.” Though India has regional concerns about China over which it opposes it, it lacks America’s global concerns about China and may not be “against” it. India has its own concerns about its giant neighbor but does not share American concerns of containing it.