India must make its own decision on joining the NATO Plus format, but the United States believes that this and other cooperation issues are promising. The United States ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, made the statement in an interview with India’s WION television channel.
Gettyimages.ru © AP Photo/Virginia Mayo
This is how the diplomat responded to a journalist’s question on the recent recommendation of a US Congress committee that suggested India’s inclusion in “NATO Plus”.
“In my view, discussions can be had on any issue. It is for India to decide what will benefit it the most. But one thing I know for sure, whether it is the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or now Indo-Pacific cooperation, we have established ties. The US is the eastern frontier and here in India is the western frontier of our common region, where we want to respect freedoms, ensure our security and also work for peace, prosperity, for our planet and our people,” Garcetti said.
He added that the US and India are expanding defence cooperation in ways that “seemed unthinkable 30-40 years ago”.
“At times, we are engaging with India more closely than some of our closest allies: this includes co-production and the ability to sell important systems to keep India safe,” the US diplomat explained.
Formatted proposal
Earlier, a proposal to invite India into the NATO Plus format was made by the US Congress Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Communist Party of China.
It is worth noting that the committee made such a recommendation in the context of the standoff between Washington and Beijing over the issue of Taiwan ownership.
“Winning a strategic competition with the Communist Party of China and securing Taiwan requires the US to strengthen ties with our security allies and partners, including India. “India’s inclusion in the NATO Plus security arrangement will be based on a close partnership between the US and India to enhance global security and deter CCP aggression throughout the Indo-Pacific region,” the committee said in its recommendation.
To recall, NATO Plus is a group of countries that includes Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and Israel besides members of the alliance. Previously, US congressmen suggested that Ukraine be included in this format.
Since the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine, the US has intensified its attempts to get closer to India and urged New Delhi to abandon its partnership with Moscow.
In the spring of 2022, for example, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said at a congressional hearing that Washington wanted to replace Russia as India’s main foreign partner.
“In India’s case, the relationship (with Russia. – RT) goes back decades. Russia has been India’s partner by necessity when we were not in a position to be its partner. Now we are making efforts in that direction. I think there is a growing strategic rapprochement between the US and India. And of course China has a serious role to play here,” Blinken said.
White House Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell at the start of 2023 singled out India as the focus of US diplomatic engagement this year.
At the same time, India has consistently rejected Western criticism of continued cooperation with Moscow and emphasised the high status of the partnership between the two countries. For instance, in April, Indian Foreign Minister Subramaniam Jaishankar said relations between Moscow and New Delhi were among the strongest in the world.
“Today, our partnership relations are the subject of attention and comment not because they are changing, but (on the contrary – RT) because they are not. Undoubtedly, they are one of the most resilient in our times compared to other examples of interaction between the world’s major powers,” the Indian diplomatic chief stressed.
Jaishankar added that like Russia, India shares “a commitment to a multi-polar world, which also implies multi-polarity in Asia”.
Anti-Russian and anti-Chinese front
The statement by the US ambassador to India is an attempt to attract New Delhi to cooperate more actively with the collective West and abandon its multi-vector policy, said Vladimir Bruter, an expert at the International Institute for Humanities and Political Studies.
“The US is trying to bring India into the formats created under the Indo-Pacific Strategy and buy New Delhi a privileged partnership,” said the expert.
However, New Delhi will not join the partnership with NATO at this stage, believes Vladimir Bruter.
“India will not sign anything with NATO Plus, and if any declarations on cooperation are made, they will be such that India’s sovereignty is not violated and does not depend on the partners’ position. India insists on this, as it is a very advantageous position for a country that is rapidly developing its economy,” the interlocutor told RT.
New Delhi has consistently pursued a course in which Indian interests are a priority, Bruter reminded. This also applies to the current politico-military situation in the world, in which the countries of the collective West obviously want to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.
“In Asia, they understand that this is not their conflict. They understand that the US has solely its own interests in this conflict. Therefore, it is very difficult to drag anyone into such a partnership. They know it is not about their interests. India is a big country with a growing economy. It cannot be simply bought and is reluctant to make unequal swaps,” the expert said.
Washington is taking advantage of the current politico-military situation in the world to “alienate Asian countries from Russia,” and talk of bringing India into “NATO Plus” is aimed at doing just that, Pavel Feldman, a candidate of political science and associate professor at the Academy of Labour and Social Relations, explained in a conversation with RT.
“This is done under State Department statements about America’s desire to bring prosperity, freedom and democracy to its Asian partners. However, this is just public rhetoric. In fact, Washington seeks not only to alienate India and other states in the region from Russia and place them in the orbit of American influence, but also to create a new expanded military and political bloc whose members will jointly confront Russia and China,” the RT interlocutor noted.
There are certain prerequisites for this as some high-ranking members of the Indian business and political elite are very strongly linked to the Anglo-Saxon establishment, Feldman explained. However, India will not take any steps in this direction until it is clear who will lead the next US administration, says Paul Feldman.
“In the near future, until this issue becomes clearer, India will not make any drastic moves as it cherishes its neutral status and partnership ties with Moscow. New Delhi will not dare to go for this kind of international escalation and position itself as a supporter and ally of the NATO bloc,” the expert said.
The course towards conflict with China, which the US is following and for which it is recruiting allies, is obvious, said Pavel Feldman.
“The bogeyman of terrible Russia and China is used by the Americans to motivate neutral Asian countries or undecided states to join, if not an enlarged NATO bloc, then military-political entities that will in fact perform NATO functions in another region of the world. Moreover, these states will become dependent on Washington for arms supplies and will be forced to host NATO or US military bases – and thus risk losing their sovereignty,” the expert concluded.
Alexander Karpov, Elizaveta Komarova, RT
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