India’s Stand On Russia-Ukraine Like ‘Dancing On Tightrope’: Shashi Tharoor
He said, no state will agree on the territory of Ukraine being encroached upon.
Mumbai: Talking about India’s stand on the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that India’s position is a “bit of dancing on a tightrope” because of its multiple interests with other countries.
He was responding to a question during an interaction held here after inaugurating a three-day photo exhibition ‘Ukraine Untold (Glimps)’, detailing what the country looked like just a month before the war broke out.
“India has gone through a very complex and challenging time in negotiations as it had its own stand on the (Ukraine-Russia) crisis. There is no doubt that India in its very first statement seemed to be a little unwilling to say anything that the Russians will be upset about,” he said.
He said, no state will agree on the territory of Ukraine being encroached upon.
On India’s stand on the conflict, Tharoor said, “In our subsequent statements, while we remained at the United Nations, we have been a little more vocal on reiterating the principles and our diplomacy has taken into account the multifarious interests we have to look after”.
While with Russia, India has “dependence” on military ties, with the West, we have “warm relations” and “we cannot oppose them”.
“We are members of the Quad and we do not want the US to turn its attention away from the Indo-Pacific and focus solely on Europe. And then with Ukraine as well, we have to first evacuate 23,000 Indian nationals, mainly students, for a few weeks,” said the Lok Sabha MP.
“So, because of all these interests, there’s a bit of a tightrope dance,” he said.
In the context of the current situation in Ukraine, he said, since Indian students have been pushed out and the war is not progressing the way the Russians expected, he expected India to “calibrate” its moves.
At the same time, Indian diplomacy has been “effective in ensuring” that there is a greater understanding of the situation than expected, he said.
“The other States might have been given a tougher time, but India matters to many countries,” Tharoor said.
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