'Balance it like Jaishankar': India perfects act amid Russia-Ukraine war

Bengaluru: In the end, peace can be achieved only by hegemony or by balance of power',' wrote the redoubtable former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger years ago, and who would know this better than S.

Jaishankar, our own External Affairs Minister, who spent years in the Indian Foreign Service dousing many a diplomatic crisis? This also explains why India has been quietly observing the proposed peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, making sure that it does not upset either side.

While Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was negotiating with Trump, US trade adviser Peter Navarro made an interesting comment, highlighting the close relation between Modi and Putin.

Navarro said India’s purchases of Russian crude were funding Moscow’s war in Ukraine and had to stop. New Delhi was now cozying up to both Russia and China, Navarro wrote in the Financial Times.

And why not when Donald Trump has been trying to bully India into submission by imposing the highest tariffs in the world on India, after describing PM Modi a 'true friend' some time ago? On expected lines, Russian President Putin dialled Modi and apprised him of the summit he held with Trump in Alaska, and discussed the prospects of a long-term solution to the conflict in Ukraine.

India has been consistently calling for ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict through dialogue and diplomacy. Why take sides when one needs to play it safe? It may be added here that in July last year, PM Modi travelled to Moscow and told Putin that a solution to the Ukraine conflict is not possible on the battlefield.

To balance diplomacy, PM Modi had also visited the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv and conveyed to Zelenskyy that both Ukraine and Russia should sit together to end the war. On India’s 79th Independence Day, Zelenskyy had greeted Modi and India, and sought India’s proactive role in the restoration of peace.

The reasons are not hard to find. Bilateral trade between India and Ukraine has grown significantly in the last 25 years. In 2018–19, it was almost $2.8 billion. India is Ukraine's largest export destination in the Asia-Pacific region and its fifth largest overall export destination.

On the other hand, India and Russia too have a long-standing relationship; Over the years, the two nations have strengthened their economic cooperation, with bilateral trade reaching unprecedented heights.

In 2025 it reached $ 68.7 billion, accounting for 40% of India’s oil imports. India is the world's largest arms importer from Russia.

Most importantly, during the Soviet era, at the UNSC, the then USSR used its veto power in India’s favour on Kashmir. Russia and India are important members on the BRICS front, providing an alternative to the US.

So the balancing game continues, for in the quagmire of current global politics, there are no permanent friends and enemies.