Jeff M. Smith
Media coverage of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent trip to Ukraine focused on how it was the first time an Indian prime minister had visited modern Ukraine. It is equally important, and no coincidence, that his visit came as Ukraine is plunging deeper into an escalating war with India’s longtime defense patron, Russia.
India has long preached a “Non-Aligned” foreign policy with an emphasis on maintaining its “strategic autonomy.” Yet it has rarely broken with Russia in the over five decades since the two countries signed a defense pact. Indeed, Non-Alignment has historically been synonymous with Non-American.
Over the past decade, however, the Modi government has shed much of this historical baggage and substantially strengthened ties with the U.S. More recently, India has also begun to show more independence from Russia. Modi’s visit to Kiev is only the latest example.
To be sure, the takeaways from Modi’s visit were modest; India is not countenancing a sharp break with Russia. Nonetheless, Modi’s visit to Ukraine has lessons for Washington policymakers.
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