India is fuelling the genocide in Ukraine
India is fuelling the genocidal invasion of Ukraine by propping the russian regime up with expanding trade - financing the regimes federal budget to fund its military industrial complex.
India's expanding commerce with Russia has raised concerns, particularly in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine. However, India’s relationship with Russia is driven by a complex mix of historical ties, strategic interests, and economic pragmatism, rather than a desire to deepen ties in a way that directly supports Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Here's how India navigates this delicate situation:
1. Historical and Strategic Relationship:
Long-standing Partnership: India and Russia have a deep-rooted relationship that dates back to the Cold War era when the Soviet Union was a key ally of India. This partnership continues to influence their diplomatic and defense relations today.
Defense Dependence: India relies heavily on Russia for military hardware, with about 60-70% of its defense equipment being of Russian origin. This dependence compels India to maintain a functional relationship with Russia, despite the latter's controversial actions.
2. Economic “Pragmatism” and reputation white-washing:
Energy Needs: India is one of the world’s largest energy consumers, and Russia has become a significant supplier of crude oil to India, particularly after Western sanctions on Russia limited its market access. India has taken advantage of discounted Russian oil, which has helped it manage inflation and energy costs domestically, while filling the coffers of the federal government in Russia, used to fund the illegal war in Ukraine.
Trade Growth: Bilateral trade between India and Russia has grown significantly since the invasion of Ukraine, driven largely by energy imports. However, this trade is framed as a part of India's broader strategy to diversify its energy sources and manage its economic needs, rather than an endorsement of Russia's policies.
3. Diplomatic Whitewashing Act:
Neutral Stance on Ukraine: India has tried hard to convince the world it has a “neutral stance” on the Ukraine conflict, often abstaining from UN votes condemning Russia. This neutrality is positioned as part of India’s non-alignment policy and its broader strategic autonomy, where it seeks to avoid taking sides in conflicts between major powers. Of course as tensions simmer with Pakistan and China - sooner or later it will become embroiled in a large conflict - probably with China over land and water resources in the next decade.
India should find no support in the future, especially from countries who have made huge financial sacrifices in changing their dependence on cheap russian fossil fuels, and who have also made substantial financial and military support aid donations. While India chooses to opaquely support Russia in the war in Ukraine conducted by a psychopathic russian.
Most of the EU, G& and coalition countries (excluding the likes of Hungary), have all worked hard to reduce trade with Russia to limit it’s revenues to support the war - India has continued expanding it’s trade, knowing it will have consequences to face at some point for this expansion and support.
Dialogue with All Sides: Despite its growing commerce with Russia, India continues to engage diplomatically with Western countries and has called for dialogue and diplomacy to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. This balanced approach helps India avoid alienating Western partners, who are critical to its economic and geopolitical interests.
4. Global South Leadership:
Advocating for Developing Countries: India has framed its engagement with Russia as part of its broader responsibility towards the Global South and it’s position in BRICS. It argues that sanctions on Russia disproportionately affect developing countries, and by continuing trade, India positions itself as a voice for these nations, which is a whitewashing of it’s support of a regime led by an indicted war criminal.
5. Avoiding Direct Support:
Limited Military Engagement: While India continues to purchase Russian defense equipment, it has not provided direct military support to Russia's war efforts. India’s relationship with Russia in the defense sector is portrayed as fulfilling its own security needs rather than supporting Russia’s military agenda.
But all is not what it seems:
India is expanding its commerce with Russia, but it does so with a clear understanding of the geopolitical risks - sooner or later it will be held to account for fuelling the genocidal regime in Russia. It chooses to advocate maintaining a neutral stance on the Ukraine conflict which is a contradiction in terms - as data shows the level and type of trade it conducts with Russia. It supports a normalisation of business as usual in russian society against the ongoing brutal suppression of Putin dissenters and opposition in Russia - and it choses to ignore the regimes daily war crimes and society destabilisation schemes it conducts globally, both is country with malevolent actors and through the propagation of propaganda and misinformation across governments and social media platforms.
India is masquerading as an innocent bystander, framing its actions in terms of national interest and global equity.and in doing so it tries to convince the world - india sidesteps direct involvement in the war. This strategy is about India trying to manage its energy needs and maintain its strategic autonomy while limiting damaging its relations with Western countries by avoiding public scrutiny and attention.
Trade:
Trade between Russia and India reached a record US$17.5 billion in the first quarter of this year, while the exchange between the two countries exceeded $50 billion for the first time. In a statement carried by Russia Today, India's Ministry of Industry and Commerce said India-Russia trade recorded a 5 percent year-on-year growth, with the previous increase being $17 billion in the second quarter of last year.
Russia exported $16.3 billion worth of goods to India in the first quarter, up from $15.6 billion a year earlier. Indian goods exports to Russia also rose 22 percent to $1.2 billion between January and March. Russia is the second major supplier of goods to India after China with shipments of $24.8 billion.
2023 Exports from India to Russia - in the middle of the genocidal war:
Machinery, nuclear reactors, boilers $576.88M
Pharmaceutical products $371.72M
Organic chemicals $323.87M
Iron and steel $321.90M
Electrical, electronic equipment $269.43M
Inorganic chemicals, precious metal compound, isotope. $209.25M
Miscellaneous chemical products $150.45M
Fish, crustaceans, molluscs, aquatics invertebrates $149.91M
Optical, photo, technical, medical apparatus $125.31M
Ceramic products $116.35M
Coffee, tea, mate and spices $92.29M
Miscellaneous edible preparations $86.13M
Lac, gums, resins. $80.11M
Rubbers $77.77M
Plastics $77.68M
Tobacco and manufactures tobacco substitutes $69.51M
Tanning, dyeing extracts, tannins, derivatives, pigments $67.08M
Cereals $66.35M
Oil seed, oleagic fruits, grain, seed, fruits $60.05M
Aircraft, spacecraft $58.27M
Articles of iron or steel $53.82M
Meat and edible meat offal $47.33M
In particular the amount of machinery exported by India to facilitate Russia in it’s war in Ukraine the following was exported to Russia in 2023:
Automatic Data Processing Machines, Magnetic or Optical Readers $85.98M
Machinery for Sorting, Screening, Separating, Washing, Crushing or Mixing $51.86M
Self-propelled bulldozers, graders, scrapers $45.38M
Apparatus for Treatment of Materials By Temperature $35.93M
Ball or Roller Bearings $35.26M
Machines and Mechanical Appliances Having Individual Functions $31.44M
Parts of Internal Combustion Piston Engines $31.31M
Taps, Cocks, Valves and Similar Appliances for Pipes, Tanks or the Like $27.88M
Centrifuges; Filtering or Purifying Machinery $23.40M
Lathes for removing metal $20.32M
Machining Centres, Unit Construction Machines, for Working Metal $19.99M
Turbo-jets, Turbo-propellers and Other Gas Turbines $18.70M
Printing Machinery; Machines for Uses Ancillary to Printing $15.29M
Pumps for Liquids, Liquid Elevators $12.93M
Parts and Accessories of Machine-tools; Tool Holders $9.42M
Machinery for Working Rubber or Plastics $9.02M
Transmission Shafts, Cranks, Bearing Housings, Gears, Gearing, Clutches $8.09M
Air or Vacuum Pumps, Air or Other Gas Compressors $7.11M
Parts of Pulley Tackle, Derricks, Cranes, Lifts $6.70M
Spark-ignition Internal Combustion Piston Engines $6.45M
As a comparison - India’s trade with the United States in 2023:
In 2022–2023, bilateral trade between the two countries increased by 7.65% to $128.55 billion, making the U.S. India's largest trading partner. The U.S. exported $48.5 billion in goods to India in 2022, including $10.8 billion in crude petroleum, $6.08 billion in coal briquettes, and $5.07 billion in diamonds. India exported $82.9 billion in goods to the U.S. in 2022, including $9.75 billion in diamonds, $7.54 billion in packaged medicaments, and $4.87 billion in refined petroleum
August 2024 update:
Imports from Russia, which were less than one per cent of the total oil imported in pre-Ukraine war period, now make up for almost 40 per cent of India's total oil purchases. India was the second-largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels in July. Almost 80 per cent of India's imports (valued at Euro 2.6 billion or $ 2.86 billion) comprised crude oil.
Russia is the top exporter of crude oil to India, with India importing a total of 2.08 million barrels per day of Russian crude oil in July 2024. This is approximately 43% of all of India's crude imports during July 2024, and the highest rate since June 2023. India, the world's third largest oil consuming and importing nation, in July bought $ 2.8 billion worth of crude oil from Russia, second only to China which remains the largest importer of Russian oil.
Russia emerged as India's biggest supplier of crude oil, which is converted into fuels like petrol and diesel in refineries, after Russian oil was available on discount following some European nations shunning purchases from Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Not just oil, but China and India also bought coal from Russia. From 5 December 2022 until the end of July 2024, China purchased 45 per cent of all Russia's coal exports followed by India (18 per cent). Turkey (10 per cent), South Korea (10 per cent) and Taiwan (5 per cent) round off the top five buyers list.
Aug 14 (Reuters) - The Indian and Russian central banks have renewed discussions to set a mechanism to expand local currency trade, in a move to iron out payment issues after a surge in bilateral trade since the war on Ukraine in 2022, a government source said. The discussions between the two central banks involve setting a reference rate between two local currencies for trade instead of determining the value of currencies against the U.S. dollar, the Indian government source said on Wednesday.
Indian central bank officials are in Russia this week to discuss settlement of payments between the country for their bilateral trade, a second banking industry source said. Russia has emerged as the second biggest exporter to India, after China, with exports growing to $23.78 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal year starting in April, up 20.3% from a year ago. India's imports from Russia, mainly crude oil, have surged after the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, with imports touching $61.43 billion in 2023/23, up 33% compared to the previous fiscal year.
Officials of both central banks are also looking into the accumulation of the rupee by Russian companies in Indian bank accounts due to current trade imbalance between the two nations. The government source said the accumulated Indian rupees by Russian firms has dropped to a "few million dollars" from varying estimates of multi-billion dollars as the surplus was used to make payments to the Indian exporters. India's exports Russia rose over 35% year-on-year to $4.3 billion in 2023/24.
India has become a full blown sponsor of war, masquerading as a neutral country.
References and sources:
https://www.wam.ae/id/article/b38xvfd-india-russia-trade-turnover-reaches-175-billion
https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/india-russia-central-banks-renew-talks-mechanism-expand-local-currency-trade-2024-08-14/
https://tradingeconomics.com/india/exports/russia