Despite the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, India maintains a policy of exchange with both Russia and the UN countries opposing Russia- leading to a plethora of disagreements about the way India should be handling correspondence with Russia. Because of the raised discussion of Russia committing crimes against humanity (bombing civilians and schools), most countries have taken a harsh opposition to the country. India, however, has maintained relations and has even continued to buy oil from Russia at a discounted price. This has angered many UN countries, as in order to punish Russia for it’s attack on Russia, the idea was to avoid buying oil as it was one of their main sources of fuel for the economy. India, however, argues that Europe has bought more oil from Russia than they have- about 15% more since the conflict started. Additionally, Dr S Jaishankar, India’s foreign affairs minister, argues that there’s no point in not taking advantage of the reduced oil pricing.
In my opinion, the real reason that everyone is critiquing India’s oil buying is because it’s not a one time offense. The thing about India is that it hasn’t even attempted to maintain a neutral policy as it claims. Instead, it’s attempting to get the advantage out of both sides. Maintaining positive relations with the UN, positive relations and trade with Russia, and having an active voice in the conflict means that India doesn’t want to stay out of the conflict- they just don’t want to be forced to let go of one thing to take the side of another. Even if we ignore the fact that India can’t maintain this policy for the duration of the conflict and come away unscathed, we have to consider the message it sends to Russia, and other countries thinking of potentially challenging the UN and the rest of the world.
India has no real alliances, no countries that are to itself as say, the US is to Britain, or even as Russia is to China (albeit strenuously). Instead, India has strategic partnerships with countries including the US, Russia, China, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, Vietnam, South Korea, Iran, ASEAN, Afghanistan, and others. This is important, because it means that India will be fraught to defend or back away from any of these countries, the way you would defend any allies or recede from any enemies (such as India’s relationship with Pakistan). So the question becomes ‘will India force itself to pick a side, or will it just wait for the repercussions that come with choosing EVERY side.’