Utility: Can be used in India-Russia, India-China, Quad, Indo-Pacific related questions.
How Russia is undermining India’s efforts against China?
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Russia opposes Quad:
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Russia’s views regarding the Quad reinforces China’s claim that the Quad is aimed at containing China.
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Russia advised India to take a “larger look at Chinese foreign policies”.
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Russia had termed the Quad as “Asian NATO”.
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Russia opposes Indo-Pacific concept:
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Russia has rejected the Indo-Pacific concept in favour of the Asia-Pacific.
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Russia believes that Indo-Pacific is designed to contain both China and Russia, and it is reviving the Cold War mentality.
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Hangover of US-Russia rivalry:
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Russia’s policymakers are obsessive with Russia’s rivalry with the U.S.
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This attitude of Russia is making it more pro-China, which is resulting in more aggressive blocking of India’s policy agendas.
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For example, increasing proximity between Russia and Pakistan.
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Why India Started looking west during geo-political changes in the past?
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Failure of the Strategic triangle proposed by Russia.
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Russia proposed the ‘Russia-China-India’ triangle to bring together the three major power.
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But due to China’s dismissive attitude and emerging China-Pakistan nexus, India started investing its diplomatic energies in rapprochement with the United States.
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Russia’s decline as super power:
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After the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), India realized Russia is incapable of balancing threats from China.
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For example. India’s cooperation with the U.S. has strengthened due to rising terrorism and China’s growing assertiveness.
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India has also deepened its ties with Japan and Australia for a soft balancing.
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Thus, India adopted external balancing strategies.
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Economic Liberalisation:
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India focussed on building an alternative international economic order.
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Economic liberalization also allowed India to buy defense weapons from a wider global market, such as Israel and France. It boosted India’s bargaining capacity with Russia.
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China’s Assertiveness:
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China’s assertiveness forced India to look for other strategic partnerships.
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The shared identities and beliefs in the principle of non-alignment, memories of colonial subjugation, and strong beliefs in sovereignty and strategic autonomy have not stopped China from asserting its hegemony over Asia.
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Failure of Multilateral Forums:
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Multilateral forums such as the Russia-India-China (RIC) grouping and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) have little practical value without China’s reciprocity.
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