Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister warned that the US is trying to use India to “contain” China, which shows that Moscow is well aware of the strategy at play and no longer sees the need to “play along” and pretend that New Delhi is innocently “multi-aligning”, but this public realisation makes Russia’s “balancing” role in South Asia and its renewed strategic partnership with India much more important than ever before.

The gig is up: Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov shocked everyone in Eurasia when he called out the US for using India as a pawn to “contain” China while speaking at the 3rd Russian-Indian forum of research centers’ heads, with TASS quoting him as saying the following:

“Frankly speaking, we do not like the fact that the US and its allies, using our friend India, are trying to add their Indo-Pacific concepts aimed primarily at addressing their own challenges in Asia to the agenda. According to our estimates, the ideas promoted by Washington together with Tokyo and Canberra are aimed at containing major regional powers and drawing dividing lines by creating closed groups and interests rather than at positive development and open cooperation in the Indian and Pacific oceans.”

It had hitherto been the height of “political incorrectness” for experts, let alone government officials, in the emerging Multipolar World Order to comment on India’s role in “containing” its notional BRICS partner China at the US’ behest, but Morgulov boldly broke the taboo and defied Alt-Media dogma.

The proverbial “cat is out of the bag” now and there’s never any going back to the earlier times of “innocence” when people pretended that India was just “multi-aligning” and nothing more, as it’s now an undeniable point of Russian policy to recognize that India’s being used by the US to “contain” China. That doesn’t mean that the Russian-Indian Strategic Partnership is also aimed against China, but conversely, that Moscow is the only Great Power capable of exercising responsible restraint on New Delhi in potentially counteracting the hostile role that Washington has envisioned for it vis-à-vis Beijing.

Not giving up without a fight: Russia’s “military diplomacy” is expertly being applied to this end, with Defense Minister Shoigu proudly boasting during his current trip to India that “no other state cooperates with [it] in the sphere of the transfer of armament and military hardware production technologies as close as Russia.” This is significant because it proves that Russia isn’t “giving up” on India “without a fight”, understanding just how crucial of a geostrategic role the country plays in its Afro-Eurasian “balancing” act by virtue of its location alone, to say nothing of its long-term potential as an aspiring Great Power.

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander: Nevertheless, Russia’s public realisation about India’s affiliation with the “China Containment Coalition” gives Moscow the right to tacitly “tilt” its own “balancing” act in directions that New Delhi might not necessarily feel comfortable with, seeing as how its Indian “friend” is doing the same in regards to it when it comes to “containing” China at the US’ behest. What this could mean in practice is that the Russian-Pakistani Strategic Partnership, which isn’t aimed against any third parties despite whatever some Americans and Indians have speculated, might intensify next year as a means of restoring “balance” in the region.

All’s well that ends well: Russia and India are the two most diplomatically dynamic countries in the world, both of which are either “balancing” or “multi-aligning” (essentially euphemisms that mean one and the same thing in principle) with one another and the rest of the world at large. While India’s “multi-alignment” has at times struggled to retain New Delhi’s reputation (whether deserved or not) for “neutrality”, Russia’s “balancing” act has been much more successful in that respect for Moscow. Ultimately, however, both Great Powers complement one another, and the end result of their diplomatic dance is that a semblance of stability has once again set over South Asia.

This article was originally published in Eurasia Future.

The writer is a political analyst, journalist and a regular contributor to several online journals, as well as a member of the
expert council for the Institute of
Strategic Studies and Predictions at the People’s Friendship University of Russia.