ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
- The recently-held Munich security conference, a major concern of the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was the reluctance of the Global South to align itself with the G-7 on the war in Ukraine.
Context
What is the Conflict?
- Contestation about post-Cold War central European territoriality and resurrecting a burnished Russian past is at the core of the Ukraine crisis.
- Ukraine’s bid for NATO membership and Russian interests in the Black Sea accompanied by the protests in the Ukraine are the major causes of the ongoing conflict.
Stand on war:
- The vast majority of countries across the world condemn the Russian invasion and wanted war to come to an end (as shown in the United Nations vote on the subject in February 2023),
- Few countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America support the political and economic sanctions on Russia imposed by the G-7.
The right side of history:
- The developing world, and especially Africa, Asia and the Middle East/West Asia, has been the site of many wars, including those of the proxy kind, in the course of the past 70 years.
- India’s External Affairs Minister: “Europe has to grow out of its mindset that Europe’s problems are the world’s problems, but the world’s problems are not Europe’s.”
- The United States and Germany tried to induce Latin American countries.
- Ukraine’s President to African leaders to meet with him over a teleconference turned out to be a fiasco:
- Only four out of 55 showed up.
- The Foreign Minister of Ukraine: Latin American and Caribbean nations should leave behind their neutrality and put themselves on the right side of history”.
Active Non-Alignment (ANA):
- It originated in 2019 and was developed in 2020 in response to the U.S.-China struggle for primacy, in which Latin America was caught in the middle.
- It was a bit of a manifesto calling for Latin American countries not to give in to pressures from either Washington or Beijing and to stick to their own interests.
- It took a page from the honorable tradition of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
- Adapted it to the imperatives of the new century, impelled by the urgency of the Latin American crisis.
- It turns out, more than a future-oriented proposal, it is an approach that is already being applied in practice.
- ANA has been referred to as “ the region’s most significant foreign policy development since the end of the Cold War”.
- Foreign Policy Magazine called it “the year of Non-Alignment”.
- ANA arose in the context of the U.S.-China spat.
Latin American governments:
- They participated in the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) ministerial forum in Mexico City.
- Democracies Summit in Washington DC, seeing no contradiction in doing so.
India’s difficult balancing act:
- India plays a key role in it, having taken a clear stand of non-alignment on the war, despite its closer ties with the U.S. and its membership in
- As host and chair of this year’s G-20: India is managing the difficult balancing act of keeping this important informal group of developed and developing nations
- Seventeen African countries abstained in the UNGA vote to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
- South Africa: It scheduled a naval exercise with the Russian Navy and China off the country’s Indian Ocean coast.
Way Forward
- The BRICS group embodies the New South that has emerged in the new century.
- It has the potential to play a critical role in furthering some sort of a mediated solution to the Ukraine conflict.
- Brazil, under the leadership of its President: It has indicated its interest in promoting a peaceful solution.
- China peace plan: Because of its pivotal position, very much holding the balance in the international balance of power
- India is in a privileged position to act as a peace broker.
- Look for a mediated outcome, a peace agreement that would necessarily entail a compromise solution acceptable to both parties.
QUESTION FOR PRACTICE
How will I2U2 (India, Israel, UAE and USA) grouping transform India’s Position in global politics?(UPSC 2022) (200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)
- Prelims: Current events of international importance, decolonisation, Non-alignment etc
- Mains GS Paper II: Bilateral, regional and global grouping and agreements involving India or affecting India’s interests.
Comments are closed.