Diving China in Eastern Ladakh was the biggest immediate concern with which India stepped into 2021. The disunion was over six months old by also. India had advised Beijing of an adverse impact on the overall bilateral relations due to the ongoing pressure. Eight rounds of Corps commander- position addresses and nearly an equal number of politic- position addresses had taken place by the end of 2020 but to no mileage.
The first advance came in February 2021. Out of the over five disunion points, the two sides agreed to liberate at Pangong Lake. In his statement in Parliament, defence minister Rajnath Singh said, “ Advancement in the Pangong lake area envisages that both sides will cease their forward deployments in a phased, coordinated and vindicated manner … These are collective and complementary way and any structures that had been erected by both sides since April 2020 in both the North and South Bank area will be removed and the terrenes will be restored.”
Still, this development didn’t insure a nippy follow-up on other disunion points. The figure-up of colors on the Line of Factual Control ( LAC) remained and there were no signs ofde-escalation. With a stubborn China indicating that it would beard it out, the first- ever Quadrangle peak, though virtual, came as a welcome counter for India The- also new US President Joe Biden, who too wanted to keep the pressure on China like his precursor Donald Trump, not only assured the first peak in March but also a follow-up with an in-person match in Washington DC in September.
Still, between the two summits came the advertisement of a military alliance AUKUS between the United States (US), United Kingdom (UK) and Australia and the chaos and collapse of Afghanistan with the military pull-out by America.
It’s these two events, and largely the ultimate, that made India formerly again bring back its focus on the relationship with its old and trusted supporter, Russia. First, let’s break down the part of AUKUS in the possible strategic rebalancing. In a surprise advertisement on September 15, the White House said that as part of the trouble to maintain security and defence cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, “ we are publicizing the creation of an enhanced trilateral security cooperation called‘AUKUS’— Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.”
In a move that greatly miffed France, the White House read-out also added, “ We’ll work moxie from the United States and the United Kingdom, erecting on the two countries’submarine programs to bring an Australian capability into service at the foremost attainable date.” The advertisement of Australia getting nuclear-powered submarines under AUKUS meant that the France-Australia diesel-electric sub deal fell through. This sparked a resemblant politic stage-off with French President Emmanuel Macron deciding to ask the American and Australian envoys to leave For India too, the advertisement came as a bit of a surprise – and it was substantially the timing – slightly a week before the first in-person QUAD meeting. As a result, questions were raised about whether it adulterated the QUAD. India dismissed these compliances with foreign clerk Harshvardhan Shringla explaining that “ Quadrangle and the AUKUS aren’t groupings of a analogous nature”.
He said the QUAD has espoused a positive visionary docket. “ This includes dealing with the Covid-19 epidemic, including the force of vaccines to the Indo-Pacific region, it includes working on new and arising technologies, it includes working on issues like climate change, structure, maritime security, education, philanthropic backing and disaster relief.” On the other hand, he added that the AUKUS was a security alliance between three countries. As per the ministry of external affairs, from India’s perspective it was neither applicable to the Quadrangle nor will it have any impact on its functioning The analysis by experts was also resolve. Some were of the clear view that the QUAD was undermined with the advertisement of AUKUS, leaving it toothless in fighting China. Others believed that it would help India as it need not be part of a military alliance against China that would annoy Beijing further. Still, the emergence of AUKUS clearly put a question mark on how proactively India would be supported in fighting China hereafter. Secondly, the fall of Kabul and the rise of the Taliban as the US left in a hurry most clearly forced India to up its engagement with Russia in 2021. As former US President Donald Trump started to press for an exit from Afghanistan, India had been conveying to the United States the possible security fallout in the region of any similar move. Still, America was laboriously negotiating a deal through Pakistan with the Taliban. This crowned in President Biden setting a date for America’s swansong in Afghanistan as August 31.
While all sides continued to believe that the Afghanistan government would n’t fall, the rapid-fire pace of the Taliban preemption proved everyone wrong. It came as bad news for India since it had been unfit to establish any top- position communication with the Taliban yet. Within days, it appeared, India’s$ 3 billion investment in the country over the last two decades was reduced to nothing. Also, an arising Pakistan stranglehold over the Taliban government has India upset Then’s where old supporter Russia, which had been in touch with the Taliban but also cautious of a security fallout in the region, came into play. The Russian NSA travelled to India doubly over a period of two months. Nikolai Patrushev travelled to India to meet his counterpart Ajit Doval in early September. He came again in November to attend the Regional Security Dialogue hosted by India in which the pivotal central Asian countries too shared.
Circumscribing this off was a short but veritably significant visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin himself. Putin travelled to India for precisely six hours but this was his only visit abroad in the last time and a half since the epidemic broke out. The only other time he left Russia was for a meeting with US President Joe Biden in Geneva. President Putin himself mentioned in his opening statement that he was concerned about terrorism and medicine trafficking, including in the environment of the situation in Afghanistan. The foreign clerk said, “ They decided to continue close discussion and collaboration between India and Russia on the situation in Afghanistan, including for a peaceful, secure and stable Afghanistan with an inclusive government that represents all sections of society. Both sides were also veritably clear that Afghanistan home shouldn’t be used for sheltering training or planning, financing any acts of terrorism Still, the thrust of the visit sounded to be on defence outfit deals. Despite the trouble of the US assessing CAATSA ( Fighting America’s Adversaries Through Warrants Act), India has stood by its S-400 bullet defence system deal with Russia. The first of the deliveries has started. By sealing further deals like the manufacture of six lakh AK-203 assault rifles with technology transfer from Russia over ten times, India has transferred a two-rounded communication to another strategic mate, the US, as well. Not only will it maintain sovereignty over defence purchases but will continue to balance relations between old musketeers and new.
