Editorial: Tardy response

The Centre’s response to the plight of stranded Indians in Ukraine, caught in the escalating tensions with Russia, has been tardy and inadequate. With war clouds looming large following a massive Russian military build-up on the borders, thousands of Indians, particularly students enrolled in Ukrainian higher education institutes, are a worried lot. The advisory issued […]

The Centre’s response to the plight of stranded Indians in Ukraine, caught in the escalating tensions with Russia, has been tardy and inadequate. With war clouds looming large following a massive Russian military build-up on the borders, thousands of Indians, particularly students enrolled in Ukrainian higher education institutes, are a worried lot. The advisory issued by the Indian embassy in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, asking the Indian nations to leave the country temporarily, came quite late in the day. There are an estimated 20,000 Indians living in the city, a majority of them medical students. Ukraine has been a popular destination for medical education in the last couple of decades. Due to news of the conflict, flight ticket prices have gone out of reach for many of them and travel agents are exploiting the situation to make quick money. The Indian mission should have been more proactive. Since the Kyiv airport is still functional and regular commercial flights are still operating, the Indian government must quickly put in place a plan to evacuate the stranded citizens, similar to the ‘Vande Bharat’ initiative undertaken in the past. More than a dozen countries have urged their citizens to leave Ukraine amid warnings from Western powers that an invasion by Russia could be imminent. Many countries, including the United States, the UK, Germany, Australia, Italy, Israel, the Netherlands and Japan, have also told their citizens to leave Ukraine. Some have also evacuated diplomatic staff and their families.

India has rarely faced the kind of dilemma it is now finding itself in. It needs to respond with alacrity and swiftness. Russia has positioned more than one lakh troops near its border with Ukraine, besides sending warships into the Black Sea for naval exercises, triggering concerns among the NATO countries about a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ideally, India will hope for a diplomatic solution and that Russia does not take military action against Ukraine. If the crisis intensifies further and leads to war, the situation would create a new set of diplomatic challenges for India and could hurt its moves to deepen security and economic ties with European partners. The standoff is already strengthening the relationship between Russia and China. The potential Russian military action against Ukraine and Western backlash would mean that Moscow will need Beijing’s diplomatic support even more. Beyond the strategic challenge that a close Sino-Russian partnership poses for India, a Moscow that is more beholden to Beijing would be particularly problematic at this moment when India is dependent on Russian military supplies and Sino-Indian border tensions could flare up again. The deepening of Sino-Russian strategic understanding would come at the cost of American power in the region. However, the weakening American power is not in India’s interest.

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