India is an object of West's 'persistent, aggressive and devious policy', says Russian FM

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on December 8 described India as an “object” of the West’s persistent, aggressive and devious policy against China in the Indo-Pacific. While addressing the general meeting of the Russian International Affairs Council, Lavrov accused Western powers of trying to undermine Russia’s “close partnership and privileged relations” with India. His remarks, which were released on Wednesday, reflected Moscow’s traditional suspicion of the Indo-Pacific concept. 

The Russian minister said, “At the same time the West is attempting to undermine our close partnership and privileged relations with India. This is the goal of the US’ very tough pressure on New Delhi in the military and technical cooperation area (with Russia)”. 

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Lavrov criticised Western and European powers for their “notorious concept” of a ruler-based order and use of sanctions for alleged chemical and cyber-hacking violations. He said that such moves are made without the involvement of global bodies under the United Nations. He went on to accuse Western powers of presenting their positions and initiatives to the world as the “only correct ones” and further added that Russia is convinced it is better to work within global organisations despite existing differences. 

He said that the West is seeking to reinstate the unipolar world order that would include all states but for Russia and China with which it would deal later. “However, India is currently an object of the Western countries’ persistent, aggressive and devious policy as they are trying to engage it in anti-China games by promoting Indo-Pacific strategies, the so-called ‘Quad’ while at the same time, the West is attempting to undermine our close partnership and privileged relations with India,” Lavrov said. 

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Russia will “promote unifying agenda”

Back in 2017, the US, Japan, India and Australia had given shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the “Quad” or the “Quadrilateral coalition” to counter China’s aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region. The United States had said that the Quad is not an alliance but a grouping of countries driven by shared interests and values and interested in strengthening a rule-based order in the strategically-important Indo-Pacific region.

It is believed that with his scathing comments, Lavrov was apparently pointing to the US threat of imposing suctions on India under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) for the $5.4 billion deal with Russia for S-400 air defence systems. 

The S-400 known as Russia’s most advanced long-range surface-to-air missile defence system can destroy incoming hostile aircraft, missiles and even drones at ranges of up to 400km. Lavrov said that rejecting the objective towards the formation of a multipolar world, the US-led West has launched a “game”. He added that it has postponed Russia and China for later and is trying to draw all others into a unipolar world by any means possible. “For our part, we will promote a unifying agenda,” he asserted. 

(With inputs from PTI) 

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