Ukraine war: how India can buy Russian oil, and still be friends with the US

India, analysts say, just taught the West a masterclass in international diplomacy.

With India vital to US efforts to counter the rise of China — seen by the US as potentially an even bigger threat to world peace than Russia — the West needed to bite its tongue.

Or as Harsh V. Pant, a professor in international relations at King’s College London, put it, the United States realized it needed to treat India as a “new partner that needs to be wooed.”

Why is India vital to the US?

Part of Washington’s plan to counter this rests with India’s inclusion — alongside the US, Japan and Australia — in the increasingly active security grouping known as the Quad, said Pant, who is also head of the Strategic Studies Program at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

Meanwhile, India has its own concerns with China. The two countries have been engaged in a military standoff along their shared Himalayan border that has claimed dozens of lives in the past couple of years. And, in an irony that won’t have been lost on Washington, India relies heavily on Russian arms to equip its military — including in the Himalayas.

Shared concerns over Chinese aggression were made clear after the Biden-Modi meeting, when US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned China was seeking to “refashion the region and the international system” and said the US and India had “identified new opportunities to extend the operational reach of our militaries.”

It was a sign that — whatever their differences over Ukraine — the two countries had a deep “understanding of each other’s positions,” said Manoj Kewalramani, a fellow of China studies at the Takshashila Institution in India.

Vocal on China, silent on India

These concerns help explain why Washington continues to criticize China’s silence on Russia’s actions in Ukraine, even as it turns quiet on India’s.

Superficially, at least, India and China appear to have similar positions on the Ukraine war. Both have positioned themselves as neutral onlookers — rather than vocal opponents — both have called for peace and both have refused to condemn the invasion outright.

And both have strategic relationships with Russia that they are keen not to jeopardize.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin declared in February their relationship had “no limits,” while on some estimates India gets more than 50% of its military equipment from Russia.

But these similarities are only superficial. In fact, there are “vast differences,” according to Kewalramani.

India on the other hand has steered clear of criticizing NATO and appears keen to downplay its differences with the US. There have also been subtle shifts in India’s position as the war has progressed.

Modi had talked to Ukrainian President President Volodymyr Zelensky, while China’s leaders hadn’t, pointed out Li Mingjiang, associate professor in international relations at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. India had also been harsher in its criticism of alleged Russian war crimes, Li said.

This month, India’s ambassador to the United Nations called the killings of civilians in Bucha “deeply disturbing,” condemning them and calling for an open investigation.

Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun on the other hand said the deaths were “deeply disturbing,” but stopped short of attributing blame and urged “all sides” to “avoid unfounded accusations.”

Significantly, after the Biden-Modi talks, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted India’s condemnation of…