Ia bukatuta?
Aipatu bezala, soilik daturik garrantzitsuenak edo eta nabarmenenak aipatuko ditut…
(Datu asko nire twitter-en kontuan ikus daitezke: @tobararbulu)
Sarrera berezia:
The oldest olive tree in the whole world is in Palestine. It’s about 3500 years old.
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Palestine will again be free, from the river to the sea.
Txioa aipatu
Lean 
لين@MeLean203
eka. 4
#Video|| A man bought the 1926 Atlas of the World book from an antique shop in Sweden, and he found a full map of Palestine in the book. #FreePalestine 
Bideoa, hemen: https://twitter.com/i/status/1532994738621644800
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Segida:
Europeans set sail to conquer and colonize populations around the world. China built a wall. These are two very different cultures and values systems. The western assumption that China wants to take over the world and give us all social credit scores is based on pure projection
Erakutsi haria
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2014 is when this began. Why do you keep misspelling 3,000 days?
Txioa aipatu
Ursula von der Leyen@vonderleyen
eka. 3
100 days ago Russia unleashed its unjustifiable war on Ukraine. The bravery of Ukrainians commands our respect and our admiration. The EU stands with Ukraine. Today in Paris, I will discuss with @emmanuelmacron @Europe2022FR the EU’s current & future support to the country.
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Seyed Mohammad Marandi@s_m_marandi
As a survivor of western chemical weapons gifted to Saddam, I would have added the word ‘nose’ to their final, most essential command.
John Simpson@JohnSimpsonNews
eka. 4
George Orwell, 1984: ‘The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.’
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Lavrov has stated that if west sends weapons to Ukraine with ever longer range they will continue to move the border of Ukraine further west from which such strikes can be launched. So presumably Kiev is considered a target in that scenario.
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The Sirius Report@thesiriusreport
European companies have almost doubled their shipments of Russian oil since the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, despite desperate efforts by EU leaders to squeeze the Kremlin war machine by blocking Russia’s exports from global markets.
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The Sirius Report@thesiriusreport
Austria MOD admits the reality on the ground in that the major routes for the delivery of weapons to Ukraine are now controlled by Russia, that rail links are damaged and trucks transporting weapons are under fire from Russian forces.
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Reports Moscow has reached an agreement with Kiev and Ankara for the exit of Ukrainian ships carrying grain from Odessa. Turkish military will help demine territorial seas and escort ships to neutral waters. Russian ships will meet vessels there and escort them to the Bosphorus.
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Russians With Attitude@RWApodcast
“If Western countries think that my visit to Serbia is a threat on a cosmic scale, it means that things are very bad for them” – Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, after the countries neighboring Serbia closed their airspace to his plane to prevent the diplomatic visit.
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Russians With Attitude@RWApodcast
According to DPR officials, Ukrainian troops are using 155 mm CAESAR self-propelled howitzers that were provided by France to shell residential areas in Donetsk
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The head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, said that the first court session regarding the captured foreign fighters will be held today in Donetsk. According to him, capital punishment is not ruled out for them.
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Benjamin Norton@BenjaminNorton
This is huge: The US government’s Summit of the Americas begins today in Los Angeles, California. Mexico’s President López Obrador (AMLO) has officially confirmed that he is not attending, to protest the US refusal to invite Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua
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This is hilarious. Biden forbad most solar panels from China, claiming they were made with “forced labor”. Now he is forced to import solar panels from Southeast Asia, tariff-free, even though those panels are still largely made in China! 
https://reuters.com/world/us/exclu
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Russians With Attitude@RWApodcast
Head of State Duma Defense Committee: Russia may strike Ukrainian infrastructure and government buildings in case long-range missile launchers are supplied to Kiev
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Chilling. The U.S. and NATO are leading us down this path. They refuse to listen to these warnings.
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Some thoughts on Biden and Zelensky’s desperate desire to escalate toward World War III.
Bideoa, hemen: https://twitter.com/i/status/1533850614349893638
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Zelensky: War weariness over the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev is growing worldwide. Therefore, people want some kind of result for themselves and the pressure on the country to reach any kind of peaceful resolution to the hostilities is growing.
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NATO TROPHIES 
Russia Armed Forces,DPR and LPR militia taking care this weapon not to end on the European black market
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Zelensky, in an interview with the Financial Times, said that Ukraine will again agree to negotiations when Russia returns to its positions before February 24. “But this victory will be temporary. We need a complete de-occupation of our territories’‘
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It seems that Kiev has found a way to make Ukrainians believe in the nonsense of Zelensky, Arestovich-with the help of drugs 
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine supported the bill on the legalization of medical cannabis-the head of the Ministry of Health Lyashko
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Ukraine cannot go on the offensive because it is inferior to Russia in technology-Vladimir Zelensky
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Ukraine’s Zelenskiy says UK providing Kyiv with ‘exactly’ the right weapons http://reut.rs/3mmn2Ss
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JUST IN
Vladimir Zelensky said that fatigue is growing in the world because of the events in the country, and as a result Kiev is being inclined to agreements with Russia that are not the most profitable for it He finally understood
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erabiltzaileari erantzuten
Beware! He only wants to buy time.
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erabiltzaileari erantzuten
In a few hours he’ll make an about face, same as before. One day he seems to come to his senses, sort of, then his puppet master pulls some strings, and he changes his mind.
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erabiltzaileari erantzuten
No he didn’t.tomorrow he will talk different.
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erabiltzaileari erantzuten
he wants a call from Lloyd Austin to put more cash in the Cayman Islands. 180 degrees in 24 hrs guaranteed
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erabiltzaileari erantzuten
Too late. The operation must be finished. Otherwise they will come back
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Hendrik Pieterse@HPiAnalytics59
erabiltzaileari erantzuten
Someone needs to make sure Victoria Nuland, Sullivan, Blinken, Boris et al stays the hell away from Zelensky.
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erabiltzaileari erantzuten
He has no cocaine today, withdrawal symptoms , when he re – stocks he will say the opposite
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Germany refuses to suplly it’s tanks to Ukraine for fear of their appearance in Russia. They cannot trust Kiev’s promises not to use them to attack Russian. – Media
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Western arms supplies to Ukraine change NOTHING. – Putin
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Benjamin Norton@BenjaminNorton
In case it wasn’t clear that Europe is a subordinated extension of the US empire, the EU has to get Washington’s permission to do trade with other countries
Txioa aipatu
The Hill@thehill
eka. 5
US to allow Venezuelan oil to be shipped to Europe: report https://trib.al/iRGa006
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Those 14 countries are mostly in Africa: what does the U.S. expect them to do after this “warning”, let their people starve?
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We must End once and for all the hegemony of the United States, with their eternal desire to interfere in the affairs of sovereign States. – Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui.
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Russia may strike Ukrainian infrastructure and Government building in case long range missile launchers are supplied to Kiev. – Head of State Duma Defense Committee.
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United States has lost more than Russia because of anti-Russian sanctions. The US attempts to improve relations with Venezuela are an indicator of the opportunistic nature of their foreign policy. – Media
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China has warned Canada and Australia to stop their provocations of face severe consequences, after Otawa and Canberra accused Chinese warplanes of intercepting their reconnaissance aircraft in the Pacific Ocean. – Media.
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The Wall Street Journals reports that Ukraine’s neo-Nazi Azov Battalion is “hoping to benefit from Western aid.” I’m sure that won’t happen, right @RoKhanna?
https://wsj.com/articles/ukrai
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Today we honor the brave men in uniform who stormed the beaches of Normandy to help liberate German/Nazi-occupation of Europe. But today our leaders/media push for Germany’s remilitarization & glorify/arm Ukrainian white supremacists/Nazis (Azov). Foolish. Shortsighted.
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More hypocrisy The Biden administration is considering letting more sanctioned Iranian oil enter global markets to try and curb fuel prices at home. Interesting how the US is unable to increase its own oil production which has fallen 15% from its high.
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The Sirius Report@thesiriusreport
India is looking to further increase Russian oil imports, with state owned refineries keen to receive yet more supplies. Presumably in part to sell onto the Europeans who must know it is Russian oil given it is in the public domain. West exists solely on kabuki theatre politics.
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Great Britain and Washington announced its intention to supply HIMARS weapons, and similar M270 rocked sistems to Ukraine, but European countries CANNOT trust Kiev’s promises not to use them to attack Russian and OTHER countries. – Senior European Intelligence Officers.
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New from @RealAlexRubi: Two Americans fighting in Ukraine, one of them a white nationalist, are now implicated in violent plots against the Venezuelan government. via
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M. K. Bhadrakumar @BhadraPunchline
Beautiful. Russia has effectively blocked the path of French-German neo-colonial agenda in Sahel.
Txioa aipatu
Russian Embassy in Kenya/Посольство России в Кении
@russembkenya
Russia government organization
eka. 5
Priorities of the Russian foreign policy. Visualization. #Russia #Africa #AU
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M. K. Bhadrakumar @BhadraPunchline
Have you noticed that the Ukraine conflict — leave alone Russia’s “defeat” — is no longer making the top headline in the New York Times? William Burns must be extremely lucky to get away with the intelligence goof-up.
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M. K. Bhadrakumar @BhadraPunchline
Orban is usually ahead of the curve. He must be sensing that time is running out for Zelensky.
Txioa aipatu
tim anderson@timand2037
eka. 5
#Hungarian PM Viktor #Orban responding to #Zelensky: “I don’t care about the States and #Ukraine. I am a Hungarian by nationality, and I do not want to lose my country because of an idiot who made a massacre in the center of Europe, and with whom, with Russia.“
Erakutsi haria
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“Wiped out” all those T-72 tanks from NATO inventory awaiting despatch to frontline. Putin said yesterday Russian forces are “cracking” NATO weapons like “nuts.”
Txioa aipatu
First Squawk@FirstSquawk
eka. 6
UK MILITARY INTELLIGENCE SAYS IN EARLY HOURS OF 5 JUNE, RUSSIAN KH-101 AIR-LAUNCHED CRUISE MISSILES STRUCK RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE IN KY
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M. K. Bhadrakumar @BhadraPunchline
Those who fund the conflict, supply arms, will decide when Zelensky should walk towards sunset. He should know he has no option but to comply. That point is nearing.
Txioa aipatu
First Squawk@FirstSquawk
eka. 6
ZELENSKY: FATIGUE IS GROWING IN THE WORLD DUE TO EVENTS IN THE COUNTRY, AND AS A RESULT, KYIV IS BEING PERSUADED TO AGREEMENTS WITH RUSSIA THAT ARE UNFAVORABLE FOR IT
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Port of Shanghai is now back to near full capacity.
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Lavrov: If #Washington provides long range missiles to #Kyiv, #Russia will deepen its undeclared ‘buffer zone’ within #Ukraine️. Moscow is dealing with a neighbouring #failedstate. TASS 6 June.
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Many of the more honest and perceptive anti war voices in the #USA these days are conservatives, as liberals wallow in #Washington‘s ‘smart power’ wars and the arrogant, fake ‘human rights’ interventions of the 21st century. Former colonel and state senator Richard Black.
Bideoa, hemen: https://twitter.com/i/status/1533948073021321216
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The frequent fate of all imperial #collaborators, they are expendable. Remember Saddam Hussein and Manuel Noriega?
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And so begins the mass exodus of #American states from the #Washington led circus.
Txioa aipatu
Kawsachun News@KawsachunNews
eka. 6
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirms this morning that he will not attend the Summit of the Americas despite weeks of appeals by Washington officials.
Erakutsi haria
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Using own civilians as a human shield is an actual strategy of the Ukrainian Armed Forces... 
Here, a member of Azov confirmed that there were orders from the highest command to not allow civilians to leave Mariupol.
Bideoa, hemen: https://twitter.com/i/status/1534005564434358272
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Mexican President Lopez Obrador is boycotting the summit. That’s a man of honour
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Balkan Conflicts Research Team@ResearchTeam
This Financial Times commentary from March 2004 is a rare example of good journalism on Kosovo in western media1
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Wishful thinking masquerading as political analysis. Newsflash @POLITICOEurope: You defeat and humiliate NATO and you’re nobody’s “vassal.”
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EXCLUSIVE,TRIAL HAS BEGUN The trial of foreign mercenaries began in Donetsk: British citizens Sean Pioneer and Andrew Hill, as well as Moroccan Brahim Saadoun. They are accused of being mercenaries and committing crimes aimed at forcibly seizing and retaining power,
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MORE UNITS DON’T WANT TO BE CANNON FODDER
-
The Cherkassy Volkssturm battalion was unexpectedly sent to Donbass for its participants.
-
After the first trip to the front line, the battalion lost 2 people killed and a large number of wounded. Plus many more got sick.
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China controls almost 90% of the world’s supply of rare earth minerals, if China leaves the United States without these resources, the current reserves of the US Department of Defense will last for less than a year, Fox News reports.
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1/2 In this video, a citizen of #Mariupol, Sergey Gaigin, tells militants from “#Azov” threatened him: — He asks me a question – Why don’t you serve in the #Ukrainian army? Why don’t you defend your homeland?
Bideoak, hemen:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1533574889696808960
https://twitter.com/i/status/1533575152205701125
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More news from NATOLand, the land of “values” and the “rules-based order”: At least one-third of Latvia’s population is made up of Russian-speakers.
Txioa aipaiu
The Kyiv Independent@KyivIndependent
eka. 6
Latvia bans all Russian TV channels until end of war in Ukraine. Latvia said it will take 80 Russian TV channels off-air until the end of Russia’s war in Ukraine and return of the occupied Crimea peninsula to Ukraine. The decision comes into force on June 9.
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“[T]he Russians battered their way into Berlin, suffering heavy casualties, probably >100,000[…] Two months later they gave up to the West over half the city they had captured at such an enormous price. At the cost of not a single life, UK and the US had their sectors in Berlin”
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this shrill con man comedian is not Churchill–do you even know this war began in 2014? instigated by Mccain and Graham?
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most fools do not know about Russia’s ‘doomsday weapons’ such as the Poseidon 5 kt torpedoes that can level all of England-cause a nuclear winter; submarine launched from anywhere in the world
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the world is begging ZELENSKY to accept a ceasefire with RUSSIA, TO AVERT WW3, but this CRAZED MANIAC will fight to the last UKRAINIAN! did you know he closed down all opposition media and arrested all politicians wanting peace?
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WHAAAAAAAAAT DO WE HAVE HEREEEEE
Zelensky’s inner circle is buying up expensive real estate in Switzerland,it looks like that In Switzerland,anyone can get an extract from the local land registry.
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Iran transports Russian oil with its tankers and helps the Kremlin to circumvent sanctions, the British newspaper Daily Mail writes,citing experts.
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1 picture 1000 words…
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NEW UAF SOLDIERS CAPTURED Group “
” takes prisoners.. BUT THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA WILL NOT SHOW THIS BECAUSE THEY WANT EVERYONE TO BELIEVE THAT UKRAINE IS WINNING SO THEY COULD SELL MORE WEAPONS SHARE THE TRUTH WITH EVERYONE
Bideoa, hemen: https://twitter.com/i/status/1534249627125424128
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The price of electricity in Lithuania has increased by more than,40% and this is not the limit! has stopped importing electricity from
and since the end of May. Before that, it imported from Russia 17% of the electricity needed for domestic consumption
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740,000 barrels per day of oil from Russia were delivered to India in May, compared with 284,000 per day in April and 34,000 per day a year earlier, Kpler reports
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“India bought 40 million barrels of Russian oil from the end of February to the beginning of May,” Bloomberg reports, “this is 20% more than in the whole of 2021
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Columnist Patrick Buchanan claims that the interests of America and Ukraine to date,they are not identical, which Zelensky would not have expected.
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India has offered the West to abandon double standards “When India buys Russian oil, it finances the war, and when Europe buys Russian gas, it does not finance the war? Can double standards be enough?”, the Indian Foreign Ministry said.
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Scoot Ritter
Russia Annihilating Ukraine 06/06/2022
HomeFront Rising Ep. 8 Ask the Inspector (Scott Ritter)
Scott Ritter: ‘No amount of weaponary is going to change the ultimate outcome of
Scott Ritter: Former U.N. Weapons Inspector On Kissinger Comments
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Responding to American Criticism of India’s Stance on Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Amb Kanwal Sibal
June 6 , 2022
If western governments are ready to accommodate India by balancing their longer term interest in keeping it within their “democratic” fold with their shorter term interest in drawing India into the circle of “democratic” states condemning Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine, America’s “India experts” are being encouraged or have taken upon themselves to keep flagging the issue of India’s “neutral” position on the conflict to mould public opinion against it.
Causing India-Russia ties to breakdown would serve crucial western geopolitical ends. Russia’s effort for years to create alternative political groupings such as the Russia-India-China dialogue, BRICS, the SCO as part of promoting multipolarity would effectively collapse. The division between “democracies” and “autocracies” would become neater, as India’s membership of these groups as the world’s largest democracy clouds it. Opposition to Russia and China, designated as US adversaries, could be organised ideologically more coherently. The US would make major military gains in India were India-Russia defence ties to wither. Hence the open calls to India to reduce its defence dependence on Russia, questioning its reliability as a future supplier because of its need to replenish stocks exhausted in Ukraine, besides the poor performance of Russian military equipment exposed during this conflict.
India’s strategic autonomy (which the US doesn’t support even in Europe) depends on maintaining ties with all powers, including those hostile to each other. That will get constricted if India-Russia ties begin to crumble. If Russia-China ties become even stronger and India’s importance to Russia diminishes- which it will if India is seen as effectively joining the western camp- that too will reduce India’s ability to protect its interests in a fracturing world.
A recent article in Foreign Affairs journal of the US Council of Foreign Relations by an “India expert” argues that India has “the last best chance” to become a great power by choosing the West over Russia the Ukraine conflict. This assumes India’s destiny is in the hands of the West, that no political, economic and security mutualities exist between the two in the evolving global situation. Such a view seems to derive more from hubris than reality. To project the Ukraine conflict as central to the future of the global community is a throwback to a past era of western imperialism.
All this while, the discourse has been that global power has shifted eastwards to Asia, away from the transatlantic area, and that international power balances will be shaped there in the future. Russia was already being treated condescendingly as a regional power with nothing to offer to the world. Suddenly, the contest with Russia in Ukraine has become central even to India’s future!
It remains to be seen if the “West” will remain united as the cost of its Ukraine policy begins to bite Europe in particular. The sentiment in the rest of the world could well become increasingly bitter towards the West too, as it would be increasingly seen as inflicting on them an unacceptable price for its failure since 1945 to build a security architecture in Europe that includes Russia.
How “India’s neutrality over the war in Ukraine has exposed its vulnerability” is not clear. We are not part of this conflict. Our ties with Russia have a strategic dimension that go beyond the military, and reducing them to only that is shoddy analysis. To claim that Russia is attempting “to re-create its erstwhile empire” (that consisted of the Central Asian states, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Belarus, the Baltic States) is just empty rhetoric, as is comparing the relations between Russia and Ukraine with those of colonised India and Britain.
Likewise, it is absurd to compare the Russia-Ukraine territorial issues to the India-China territorial dispute. These territories have never been part of China; no Chinese have ever lived in them; nor are these areas becoming operational platforms for a military alliance. India has long standing traditional ties with Russia. To say India “feels caught in a vise grip by Moscow” shows faulty understanding of India by someone who handled India in the US National Security Council under Trump.
To claim India is concerned about Putin not being “shy about cutting trade with states that condemn his invasion” is playing with facts. Russia has continued supplying oil and gas to Europe and the US until they cut off supplies themselves or refused to pay in rubles. India’s approach is criticised as “shortsighted and risky”, as it “ignores the dangerous precedent that Russia’s reckless behaviour is setting in other parts of the world”. Really? What precedents did western interventions in Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan create? Also, the recognition of Kosovo that is contrary to UN resolutions? China will make its own profit and loss calculations about military interventions anywhere.
China’s actions in the South China and East China Seas and in Ladakh precede Russia’s military incursions into Ukraine. How our position on Ukraine gives diplomatic cover to China “to also ignore Russia’s bad behaviour” is inventing an argument. To argue that “although criticising the invasion might worsen relations with Russia, refusing to take a stand could alienate an even more powerful country: the United States”, suggests that India has not taken a stand. It has, and that stand is not to choose sides on an issue where the rights and wrongs are mixed, and that India will act in its national interest.
That national interest is not aligned with America’s interest to isolate Russia, cause its economic collapse, weaken it militarily permanently and bring about regime change. That the US is arming Ukraine with more and more advanced weapons with the clear aim to prolong the war and impose increasing costs on Russia is not a policy India, which wants a ceasefire and diplomatic efforts to find a solution, can endorse.
Our foreign policy cannot become hostage to US priorities and preferences that clash with those of India, especially on issues that are not central to their bilateral ties but are based purely on America’s power play.
To say “The prospect of upsetting Washington should be particularly concerning for Indian policymakers”, is to treat India as beholden to Washington’s moods and whims. It is not as if the US does not upset India with many of its decisions, including on Afghanistan, but a balance of interests has to be struck in any mature relationship.
Yes, the “United States has become one of New Delhi’s most important partners” but that is based on mutuality of interests, and linking it to India’s China challenge alone is misreading the situation. India does not expect a US that quit Afghanistan in disgrace to get involved in India’s border dispute with China, with which the US has far more dense ties than with India. The US courts India to add to a ring of deterrence against China, not to engage in a military conflict with it. If ever the US does get involved in such a conflict it will be in the western Pacific, not in the Himalayas. The US will render valuable diplomatic and material and intelligence related help in case of a conflict with China, but not beyond that.
To suggest that for the moment the US is tolerating India’s neutral position but that its patience is not endless is to treat India as an errant child which will be spanked if it becomes too troublesome. That such a view is articulated by even those considered friendly and understanding towards India shows how much a sense of entitlement has entered the US policy making machinery.
Indian policymakers have not, as the expert says, “calculated that their country is so central to U.S. efforts to counterbalance China that India will remain immune to a potential backlash”. They rely on America’s rational assessment of its own national interest and the geopolitical viability of its strategy of curbing China’s expansionism without India as a partner in the Indo-Pacific and the Quad. The US will do no favours to India unless it is in its national interest. After all, it sanctioned India’s democracy for decades on issues strategically vital for India. India has no illusions.
Yes, the US will have an upper hand because of its power but India will also play to its strengths. It is not clear why after treating Russia and China as adversaries, the US will add India to that list. To argue that “the longer Russia prosecutes its war without India changing its position, the more likely the United States will be to view India as an unreliable partner” raises two questions. What is the responsibility of the US, UK and EU in prolonging the conflict? Is it Russia alone? How reliable has the US been as India’s partner even after the nuclear deal? It has toyed with a G2 with China and handed over Afghanistan to the Taliban with Pakistan’s cooperation, and left enormous amounts of weapons behind, all of which endangers India’s security. It has also interfered in India’s internal affairs on many issues. Why should ultimately India “have to pick between Russia and the West”. What is the basis of this threat?
That “The United States and its allies can offer India more—diplomatically, financially, and militarily—than can Russia” is correct but why should India to have choose the West. India has much more to offer to the US in several ways than Pakistan but has the US chosen India and discarded Pakistan all these years and even now? Will the US choose between India and China, even when China counters the US diplomatically and militarily, abuses it constantly and seeks to replace it as the world’s foremost power?
Our ties with the US serve a much wider range of India interests. Russia serves a narrower range of interests. The US cannot replace our geopolitical interests in continental Asia (we are an Asian power and have equities in Asia) as Russia can, besides access to certain critical technologies and cooperation in nuclear and space sectors on the same terms. We need to maintain ties of confidence with Russia so that it does not drift entirely towards China and sees no need to keep India on its side to balance its ties with Beijing. To say India “has little to lose by throwing its lot in with the United States and Europe and it ought to use Russia’s invasion as an opportunity to boldly shift away from Moscow” is presumptuous advice. Why have the US and Europe waited for the Ukraine conflict to see the virtues of India throwing its lot with them and not before ?
To say that “India is something of an outlier among the world’s democracies” when it comes to the Ukrainian conflict is to use the democracy argument cynically and hypocritically. It is western democracies that waged war against Iraq, Libya, Syria and Afghanistan, not to mention many earlier ones. India did not support these wars either. How is Ukraine different? The military allies of the US are actively supporting it in Ukraine, but India is not one.
To argue that India has “even supported Moscow” is distorting facts. India has limited economic ties with Russia in any case, but even these have been disrupted by sanctions, creating payment issues. India, which imports 85% of its oil, has been severely hit by the spike in oil prices caused by western sanctions on Russian oil and gas. India consumes 4.7 million barrels of oil a day. Importing 700,000 barrels a day in April meets only a very small portion of India’s one day requirements. Europe has imported about $ 23 billion of fossil fuels per month from Russia since the Ukraine conflict began. Why should India not buy discounted Russian oil? India is not bound by US or European sanctions. Even the Saudis are not cooperating with the US, which has now made overtures also to Venezuela to control rising oil prices at the pump for American consumers.
The EU has made an exception for Hungary and Slovakia, for instance, for purchase of Russian oil despite the EU decision to sanction Russian oil. Far richer Europe is far less dependent on Russian oil and gas than India is. Targeting India for buying limited quantities of Russian oil is perverse and does not strengthen confidence and trust in the West in Indian policy makers.
“For now, U.S. officials have been tolerant of India’s behaviour” is offensive in substance and tone. To say that “as Russian atrocities mount and India continues to import large amounts of Russian crude oil and gas, Washington may begin to see New Delhi as an enabler”. The US is still buying uranium from Russia to avoid disruptions in domestic electricity supplies. The US is an exporter of oil and gas, and so it gains a lot from high energy prices. The losers are countries like India, which makes sanctimonious homilies from an American scholar jarring. How will India buying small quantities of Russian oil amount to “facilitating Russia’s invasion”? It is China that buys huge quantities of Russian oil that is doing this facilitation, as also the huge payments being made by Europe to Russia for gas imports. A sense of proportion is needed.
If India doesn’t turn to non-Russian military suppliers, the US, the expert says, will not increase “its transfer of sophisticated defence technologies to New Delhi, since Washington cannot expose its high-tech equipment to Russian systems”. Has the US transferred any such technologies to India till now? The Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) has been a damp squib so far. The expert visualises the US sanctioning India under CAATSA, and “Indian officials could be hit with restrictions on access to U.S. loans from U.S. financial institutions and prohibitions on bank transactions subject to U.S. jurisdictions, among other sanctions”. If that happens it will be a big blow to India-US ties and set back the ties for a long time. It will be for the US to make that choice.
India “curtailing dependence on Russian military gear” is projected as “the right move for moral reasons”. Will increasing dependence on the US instead be morally right? Why bring in morality in military deals? The usual arguments about Russia being less able to assist the Indian military because Russia will have fewer high-quality weapons to sell, and will need to focus more on replenishing its own military stocks, particularly as it loses access to critical Western technologies, are being unnecessarily trotted out as if we are not assessing all this ourselves. If that happens India will have good reason to look elsewhere, but it will naturally flow from a real situation on the ground not under duress by a third party.
Whether Russia has become far less dependable politically compared to the past by, for example, recent overtures to Pakistan, with Lavrov visiting Islamabad, and pledging to construct a $2.5 billion gas pipeline is nothing as compared to US military ties with Pakistan, restoring IMET, and close cooperation with Pakistan to enable US withdrawal from Afghanistan and hand over the country to the Taliban.
The US has been more alarmed by the release of Beijing and Moscow’s historic joint manifesto, announced on February 4, following a meeting between Putin and Xi Jinping than India. It was directed principally at the US, though it was not comforting for India either. Russia has been neutral on the India-China confrontation in Ladakh. India did not turn to Moscow for diplomatic assistance (as is being claimed) hoping that Russia could defuse tensions and prevent an all-out conflict. India did not need Russian intervention, nor sought it. India and China have held 15 rounds of military level talks and meetings also at Defence and Foreign Ministers level to defuse the situation on the ground. The Chinese Foreign Minister has come to India recently at his initiative to probe India’s thinking, with the BRICS virtual summit to be chaired by Xi Jinping in mind.
Washington no doubt helped India with material and intelligence support on the occasion of the Ladakh aggression and India has genuinely appreciated this. To say that it “publicly vowed to stand with India in the country’s efforts to protect its territorial sovereignty” is greatly exaggerating US willingness to get directly embroiled in an India-China conflict.
If , as is said, “The U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy, released in mid-February, made clear that India plays a critical role in Washington’s efforts to compete with Beijing”, it is all the more reason not to make Ukraine an issue between the US and India. That India is “welcome to partner with the West” is a patronising formulation. India too would welcome the US to partner with it in mutual interest. If, as the article says, Washington were to give New Delhi even more access to sensitive U.S. technologies that would enhance Indian defence capabilities, incentivise U.S. private companies to co-develop and co-produce additional high-tech military equipment in India and makes its military gear more affordable for India, that would be welcome. But providing a $500 million Foreign Military Financing package to incentivise India to purchase U.S. weapons is treating India whose defence budget is the third largest in the world with callous disrespect.
To use the Quad to make India cooperate on Ukraine would be a serious mistake. The Quad’s agenda is focussed on the Indo-Pacific and the China challenge in various domains. It was never directed at Russia. Issues of food shortages etc because of the Ukraine crisis have no place on the Quad agenda. The formulation that “India wants to be engaged, not shamed” doesn’t explain what India should be shamed about? Not condemning Russia? What kind of a mindset puts forth such absurdities?
The writer assumes that India lacks any sense of its national interest or geopolitics by suggesting that China is duping India by playing into its concerns for preserving its strategic autonomy and promising multipolarity, when India has repeatedly said that a multipolar Asia is a pre-requisite for a multipolar world. Why should a multipolar world be against India’s interests? Why should multipolarity enable China to redraw borders in the Himalayas?
India is already standing up to China on its own strength. How is not condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, for which the causes are multiple and complex and involve the West’s policies too, is playing into Russia’s or China’s hands? India is not being cowed down either by Russia or by the US in the position it has taken ion the Ukraine crisis. Our position responds to the merits of the situation and our national interest.
Deeper partnership with the US is a two-way street. India will have to depend on itself to achieve its great power ambitions, which requires friendship with all partners calibrated to mutual advantages that such a policy brings. The strength of these partnerships does not have to be the same, but it has to be reciprocal.
(The paper is the author’s individual scholastic articulation. The author certifies that the article/paper is original in content, unpublished and it has not been submitted for publication/web upload elsewhere, and that the facts and figures quoted are duly referenced, as needed, and are believed to be correct).
1 Ikus hurrengo lantxoa.
