China - India: Asia redesigned

The Rise of an Asian Bloc: China and India Confront U.S. Pressure

The reckless demands of the United States that China and India distance themselves from Russia have made both countries realize that they have similar destinies and can overcome their differences. The world is going to be redesigned because an Asian bloc of three billion people is taking shape before us.

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In the last week of March 2022, a series of articles appeared in the Chinese and Indian press expressing the refusal of both countries to submit to U.S. demands that they end their hydrocarbon purchases from Russia.

After the visit of the Chinese Foreign Minister to his Indian counterpart and with a view to distancing themselves from the United States, they testify to the fact that the two countries are becoming aware of their proximity, common interests and their ability to manage their differences.

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American misunderstandings

If it needed to justify its belief that the United States was behind the war, China could always have the "U.S.-Ukraine Strategic Partnership Charter¹ ", signed on November 10, 2021 by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, read. A text that affirms U.S. support for Ukraine's full integration into European and Euro-Atlantic institutions and its support for Ukraine in the Russian-led conflict in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The U.S. states that it will never recognize Russia's attempts to annex Crimea. It goes so far as to state that it will work with Ukraine to recognize the memory of the Holodomor² of 1932-1933 and other brutalities committed against it. This slur is one of the causes of the outbreak of hostilities. 

With this conflict, the United States can increase its pressure on Russia. Ukraine, and with it the NATO countries, is being instrumentalized. Washington really needs tense and confrontational Russia-Europe relations. The geopolitical crises in Europe over the past three decades have contributed to NATO's long existence. At its recent summit in Brussels, the organization once again symbolically "united" under the banner of the "Western democratic bloc" to call Russia a common enemy. Nothing but the expected. The United States has always done its best to prevent Russia and Europe from improving their relations; this is its strategy to keep a foothold in Europe. Improving bilateral relations with Russia, an important neighbor, would be in the fundamental interest of the EU, but Washington still runs the European security mechanism. The secret of this success lies in the ability of the United States to effectively exploit past grudges and conflicts of interest between European countries. In this sense, the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine is an opportunity for a new sleight of hand in which the United States is once again using its old tricks³ .

It is through economic sanctions that the United States intends to reduce Russia. After the outbreak of the conflict, they have continued to intensify them. But since they cannot suffocate Russia alone, they must be assisted by all countries and force the whole world to choose sides. It does not matter that they are adding to the difficulties of global economic recovery and inflicting excessive damage on the livelihoods of many countries. In order to carry out its enterprise, the United States is trying to make the whole world fall into its huge trap by trying to make the international community share its responsibilities and the consequences of the crisis. Apart from Europe, China, Russia's largest customer, and India, its ally, are particularly targeted. 

There is no need for such injunctions. For China, Washington has no legitimacy to set red lines for other countries⁴ . But it claims to set them for India, which will rebel. While Russia is offering India a very large discount, $35 per barrel, for massive purchases of its flagship Urals grade, an American emissary is warning that "there are consequences for countries that seek to circumvent American sanctions against Russia. This warning was not well received, since it was the government in New Delhi that pointed out that oil self-sufficient countries could not credibly demand that trade with Russia be reduced. Adding that India's imports of Russian oil do not exceed one percent while the United States still imports over seven percent. Raising the debate, India added that legitimate energy purchases should not be subject to political bans⁵ .

This conflict has made Indian society, which is committed to its diplomatic independence, aware of Washington's brutal ways and unbearable its domineering pretensions. It may even have made it aware of the maneuvering of US policymakers to maintain discord between it and China. But more importantly, the war in Ukraine, revealing common concerns, has brought the two countries closer together and diminished the hostility that may have existed before.

India and China can get along

The first step was taken by China when it recalled what a strategic consensus should be: "the two countries are not threats to each other but opportunities for each other's development".  A conviction that will be developed by the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the occasion of his visit to his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on March 25, 2022, stating: "While following their own development paths, both countries should consider bilateral relations with a long-term vision, see each other's development with a win-win mentality and take part in the multilateral process with a cooperative posture⁶ ".

More significantly, Wang Yi's concluding remarks were reported in the Indian press: "I strongly felt that both sides agreed to adhere to the leaders' consensus that the two countries do not pose a threat to each other and that they should manage their differences," adding, "the two heads of state agreed to create opportunities for their development, to properly resolve practical issues of common concern over the years and to promote the stable and sustainable development of bilateral ties.⁷  A new horizon.

Of course, as the Global Times acknowledges, it would be unrealistic to expect that all the differences between China and India can be ironed out any time soon. However, China and India can certainly rebuild the foundations of mutual trust and learn to manage their differences. China has fully demonstrated its goodwill in this regard. It hopes that India will take this goodwill seriously and meet it halfway.

It will then be "two ancient neighboring civilizations, the two largest developing countries, 2.8 billion people, China and India, two unparalleled forces that will act together to promote the multipolarization of the world, economic globalization and the democratization of international relations⁸ .

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EV

_Sources: 

1. _{U.S.-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership, United States Department of State, 10/11/2021}
2. _{"Holodomor": the extermination by hunger in Ukraine. https://www.geo.fr/histoire/holodomor-lextermination-par-la-faim-en-ukraine-206333}
3. _{NATO legitimacy further questioned asUkraine crisis drags on? Global Times 27/03/2022}
4. _{Washington unqualified to draw redlines for others, Global Times} 
5. _{Russia offers oil to India at big discount to pre-war price: Report? Times of India, 01/04/2022}
6. _{Ukraine crisis mirrors China-India common interests, Global Times, 26/03/2022}
7. _{Keenly felt' India, China agree to adhere to consensus of not a threat to each other: Wang Yi on his India visit,The Times of India, 29/03/2022}
8. _{Wang Yi Holds Talks with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar? Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, 25/03/2022}

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