There is a major geopolitical chess match going on wherein India, Russia, China and the US and Canada are making their moves with one sole aim—self-interest. On the 21st of October, Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar said that India and China’s disengagement process along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has now been completed. Minister Jaishankar said that the situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) has returned to what it was before May 2020, when tensions arose between the two neighbours in Galwan Valley, which resulted in casualties on both sides.
This massive development came ahead of the BRICS summit hinting at the strategic undertones that transcend the scope of mere resolution of bilateral disputes. It appears that India is sending out a message to the United States, Canada, and other Western powers that India and the BRICS nations are capable of resolving their disputes on their own without the interference of Western nations, particularly the Five Eyes and that India will not compromise its strategic autonomy to preserve ties with the West.
PM Modi to meet President Putin and President Jinping at BRICS summit: Global South challenging the status quo in the West-led global order?
While BRICS leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have maintained that BRICS is not an anti-West grouping or a geopolitical ‘rival’ of the West, its non-West influence remains a concern for the US, the only remaining major superpower. Prime Minister Modi is on a two-day visit to Russia’s Kazan city to attend the 16th BRICS Summit. He is anticipated to hold a bilateral meeting with President Putin and discuss various issues including the Ukraine-Russia war, and about the future course of action to strengthen cooperation between Russia and India. Moreover, reports say that PM Modi is also likely to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in the wake of the disengagement agreement.
In a statement before embarking on his Russia visit, PM Modi said: “I am departing today on a two-day visit to Kazan at the invitation of Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, to attend the 16th BRICS Summit. India values the close cooperation within BRICS which has emerged as an important platform for dialogue and discussion on issues concerning the global developmental agenda, reformed multilateralism, climate change, economic cooperation, building resilient supply chains, and promoting cultural and people-to-people connections, among others.”
With countries like India and China resolving their disputes without leaving any scope for the West to interfere and India asserting its strategic autonomy to bolster ties with West’s bête noire Russia, the US will certainly closely monitor the BRICS Summit even as it may claim not to see the grouping as “geopolitical rivals”.
India, China, and Russia are major actors in BRICS, a group that is rapidly positioning itself as an alternative to Western-dominated institutions such as the G7. By disengaging at the border and coordinating high-level meetings, India and China appear to emphasise the necessity of preserving functional ties notwithstanding their disagreements. The move might send a signal to the United States that the BRICS countries can resolve issues without the need for Western intermediaries, demonstrating the strength of non-Western partnerships.
Landed in Kazan for the BRICS Summit. This is an important Summit, and the discussions here will contribute to a better planet. pic.twitter.com/miELPu2OJ9
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 22, 2024
Harbouring Khalistani terrorists at home, Canada slandered India, after killing terrorists like Osama Bin Laden on foreign soil, US cries hoarse over alleged Indian attempt to kill Pannun: The epitome of hypocrisy
The BRICS summit comes at a time when the diplomatic ties between India and Canada have hit rock bottom owing to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s unfounded and preposterous allegations against the Indian diplomats. Trudeau’s government launched a fresh wave of attacks on the Indian government and diplomats accusing them of involvement in criminal activities against Khalistani terrorists in Canada without a shred of evidence. Right after destroying ties with India, Trudeau admitted that Canada had no evidence before accusing the Indian government of involvement in the killing of Khalistani extremist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. In an interview, Trudeau said that they had no proof to pinpoint the killing of Nijjar to India when they had first accused New Delhi of orchestrating the assassination on Canadian soil.
This was the second time that Canada accused the Modi government and Indian diplomats of involvement in the Khalistani terrorist’s killing, of course, without any evidence. Back in September 2023, PM Trudeau had launched his first attack against India accusing the Modi government of involvement in Nijjar’s killing. A year has passed, however, the Trudeau government could not furnish any evidence to back its claim. All it has done is make baseless allegations, demanding proof from the Indian government after accusing the same of foul play and lecturing India on the ‘rule of law’.
Canada under Justin Trudeau has turned into a safe haven for Khalistani terrorists who directly challenge the territorial integrity of India and want to separate Punjab from India. Not a day goes by when Khalistani separatists do not raise anti-India protests, burn Indian flags, and slander the Indian Prime Minister and Indian diplomats with impunity since the Canadian Prime Minister shields the anti-India elements in the garb of protecting their freedom of expression and right to protest while actual interest in defending Khalistani terrorists is garnering their votes.
Similarly, despite being a crucial ally, the US takes delight in behaving like the ‘Big boss’ and sermonising India over religious freedom, press freedom, right protest and whatnot while crushing all of it at home as seen in the case of University students doing ant-Israel encampment protests in the US.
Be it issuing biased reports on India and the country’s internal matters based on dubious sources, or providing safe haven to anti-India and anti-Hindu terrorists like Gurpatwant Singh Pannun as well as pro-Khalistan outfits, the US has outdone itself in being a top-order hypocrite. Moreover, the US has been attempting to interfere in Indian democracy.
As OpIndia reported earlier, US diplomats met National Conference leaders in Jammu and Kashmir ahead of the scheduled Assembly Elections, they also reportedly met farmer leaders and leaders of the opposition parties. The US has also been taking measures to influence public opinion in India and promoting the anti-government ‘influencers’ under the garb of making Indians ‘aware’ and ‘active’ citizens. Other than this, US lawmakers had also raised their ‘concerns’ during the 2019 ant-CAA protests and even called the humanitarian law ‘discriminatory’. Also, when the Modi government abrogated Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir in 2019, the US House of Representatives held a hearing on human rights in Kashmir.
Alongside interfering in India’s internal matters, the US has also been threatening India. The US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti launched a veiled attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and went so far as to threaten ties with Western powers over his Russia visit. Even when India signed the historic Chabahar Port deal with Iran, the US issued a ‘sanctions’ threat to India. Probably, the US expects other countries to seek its ‘permission’ before taking steps to serve their own national interests and pursue partnerships with respective neighbours.
Amidst the India-Canada row over Nijjar’s killing, the United States recently claimed that a certain Indian national was allegedly involved in conspiring to assassinate a person designated as a terrorist by the Indian security agencies. The same US however, had no qualms in carrying out arbitrary bombings in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Middle East, including the operation authorised by the then PM Barack Obama, to take down Al Qaeda terrorist Osama Bin Laden, who was hiding in a safe house in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The US operations destroyed nations like Iraq but no one opposed the US, the same Canada granting a safe haven to Khalistani terrorists had backed the US when Laden was hunted down in Pakistan. While Canada offers its land and resources to the Khalistani terrorist to carry out their anti-India activities and the US delays the extradition of Mumbai 26/11 attacks conspirators like Tahawwur Rana and David Headley, the two countries expect India to silently accept this and cry hoarse when it allegedly goes the US way to eliminate terrorists on foreign land.
It is amusing that the US backs Israel in its war against the Islamic terror group Hamas, its invasion of Palestine and Lebanon to eliminate Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists like Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Nasrallah among others. However, it has strong objections with India allegedly attempting to eliminate its designated terrorists on foreign soil. Why do the US and Canada support Israel in its war against terrorists but not India in the same way? Is it because, unlike Israel, India shares good ties with Russia?
Notably, the very fact that India under the Modi government has maintained its policy of strategic autonomy, where it refuses to be a part of any bloc that compromises or challenges its independent decision-making and refuses to be anyone’s puppet has rattled the Western powers. Despite the differences, the US and India share strong ties, however, India solving disputes with China and increasing cooperation with Russia, especially in the oil and defence sector, the US would not be very pleased with India’s balancing act between multiple global powers in pursuit of its national interests. India’s efforts to maintain balanced relations with US adversaries like Russia, China or Iran as well as the West send a subtle message to the US and the Five Eyes that India remains a sovereign player in global relations and it is capable of sustaining diverse alliances instead of aligning fully with one side or surrender its autonomy.
While the US has backed Canada in its attacks on India over the Khalistani terrorist’s killing in an apparent attempt to build up pressure on India, however, with its efforts to solve disputes with China and increase cooperation with non-West allies like the BRICS nations, India has sent out a message to the US and the West that it cannot be diplomatically isolated and any sinister attempt to tarnish the image of India cannot diminish India’s global influence and its position as an emerging major world power. Being a non-West group of nations, the BRICS platform allows India to consolidate its position as a representative of the Global South while also implicitly challenging the West-led narrative in world trade and economic policies especially when the advocacy for de-dollarisation has increased with President Puttin suggesting that the BRICS nations should adopt SWIFT-like cross border payments systems to counter US dollar dominance.
As the Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar highlighted, there has been a shift in the power balance from overtly Western domination to the rise of regional powers around different pockets of the world. And these regional powers are in no mood to let the West dictate terms for their foreign policy or how they pursue their national interests.
