Bangkok Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) receives a guest with military honors on Monday, who has not yet found any clear words about the war in Ukraine. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is coming to Berlin for so-called government consultations – a bilateral working meeting from which the federal government is hoping for a particularly deep exchange.
However, the planned expansion of the strategic partnership is overshadowed by the differences regarding the Ukraine war: The government in New Delhi refuses to condemn the Russian attack and to name the Kremlin as the aggressor.
Even before his departure, Modi’s government made it clear that it did not want to back away from its position, which Russia had explicitly praised. India firmly rules out any participation in the western sanctions against Russia. A Foreign Office spokesman said before Modi’s departure for Europe, where he wants to visit Germany as well as Denmark and France: “Our attitude towards sanctions hasn’t changed a bit.”
Instead of also putting economic pressure on Russia, India wants to ensure that business with the country can continue unhindered. With regard to the Western sanctions, the State Department said: “We want to stabilize our economic interactions with Russia and ensure that our companies and our interests are not affected.”
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The meeting in Berlin, to which several ministers will accompany him, is Modi’s first trip abroad since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. India’s decision to maintain traditionally close political and economic ties with the government in Moscow despite the invasion caused disappointment in Europe and the USA. During a visit to New Delhi, Scholz’ foreign and security policy adviser Jens Plötner said: “We want a situation in which our sanctions are not undermined and no friendly country tries to derive economic benefits from the war.”
Scholz sees common values and interests with India
But a number of top Western politicians have recently been unable to change India’s position: Both British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have traveled independently to New Delhi in the past few days to talk about Ukraine, among other things to speak.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had not made any concessions in New Delhi in the past few days.
(Photo: AP)
Neither reached any significant concessions – just like US President Joe Biden, who had criticized India’s oil deals with Russia in a video conference with Modi in mid-April.
Even the federal government does not seem to expect that there will be any significant rapprochement in the government consultations on the Russia question. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said before the talks that it was about exchanging ideas and making your own positions clear.
According to him, the German government does not want a clear positioning of India on the side of Ukraine to be an indispensable prerequisite for closer relations do. Looking at India’s stance to date, Hebestreit said, “Whether that stands in the way of an actual strategic partnership will probably have to be judged over time.”
Chancellor Scholz recently named India as one of the countries with which Germany wants to work more closely in the Asia-Pacific region – alongside Japan, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea. Germany shares common values and interests with the states, he said during his visit to Tokyo. When dealing with the Ukraine war, however, Indian interests differ from those of Germany.
When dealing with the Ukraine war, Indian interests differ from those of Germany, said the Chancellor during his visit to Tokyo.
(Photo: IMAGO/ZUMA Wire)
The country sees itself as neutral in the conflict and has abstained from voting on resolutions critical of Russia both in the United Nations Security Council and in the General Assembly.
Turning away from Russia would harm India – says New Delhi
From the point of view of the government in New Delhi, turning away from Russia would harm India: Asia’s third-largest economy is dependent on Russian deliveries of military equipment and does not want to risk a weakening of its army, especially in view of conflicts with China. At the same time, Russia also supplies energy: after the start of the Ukraine war, the subcontinent significantly increased its imports of Russian oil.
In view of the purchase agreements with countries like India, the German government fears that a possible EU oil embargo could not have the desired effect. Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck said on Thursday that such an embargo could result in sharply rising world market prices. “A situation may arise where Putin, who is still selling oil to other states, gets more money with less oil,” he warned.
The government in New Delhi believes that turning away from Russia would harm India.
(Photo: AP)
So far, however, Russia has not been able to push through price surcharges on its oil deals with India – on the contrary: India claims to have bought from Russia mainly because the country had agreed to discount prices after the start of the western wave of sanctions.
The government in New Delhi also described the volume of deliveries as comparatively small. India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said the country buys less energy from Russia in a month than Europe does in an afternoon.
India is currently working with Russia on a new payment mechanism to make it easier to settle transactions between the two countries in rubles and rupees in the future, instead of taking the detour via the US dollar. According to media reports, Russian and Indian central bank representatives recently negotiated the details. Apparently, a final decision has not yet been made.
More: India’s proximity to Russia – the West can save itself the pointing finger.