The war between Ukraine and Russia sheds a harsh light on the growing gap between North and South. Western countries celebrate their unity around the defense of Ukraine and the isolation of Russia. At the same time, they try to drag the rest of the world in their wake. And it is a failure.
A sign that the West is struggling to rally the “international community”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was received in India last week with full honors. He even had the right to an audience with Prime Minister Modi, which the latter had refused to the British Minister at the Foreign Office, Liz Truss. India and Russia are continuing trade negotiations regarding the purchase of Russian oil and arms.
In a way, and despite its strategic rapprochement with the United States, Japan and Australia within the framework of the Quad alliance, which consists of standing up against China, India has become the leader of the anti-religious sling. -Western. This paradox is only apparent. Indeed, India remains deeply attached to its foreign policy which, since the country’s independence, has been based on non-alignment. “Strategic autonomy” from other great powers, a goal that Europe is unable to achieve, is not an empty term for the Indians. They built it in parallel with their emergence as an economic power.
A few days before the outbreak of war, on February 24, the Indian Minister of Foreign Affairs gave a very revealing interview to the daily Le Figaro. When the journalist asked him if India’s refusal to condemn the concentration of Russian troops on the Ukrainian borders was linked to the fact that Russia is one of its arms suppliers, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was scathing. After recalling that the situation in Ukraine was the result of “a complex series of circumstances over the past thirty years”, he addressed Westerners with this question: “Are you mobilized to find a good solution or are you content postures? »
In the aftermath of the invasion, India joined the fifty countries out of the 193 members of the United Nations who refuse to condemn Russia and join in the sanctions. India found itself on the same wavelength as China, its historical enemy, South Africa, Pakistan, Senegal. Even countries that formally voted against Russia, such as Nigeria, Egypt, Turkey, Israel, Argentina, Mexico and Brazil, have refused to adopt sanctions and persist in maintaining diplomatic and economic relations. with Moscow.
Westerners are uncomfortable with this behavior and have great difficulty integrating the opinion of the “rest of the world” into their geopolitical calculations or their analyses. One only has to listen to the panels of experts in Canada, France or the United States to see the complete disconnection between the North and the South on this war and on many other subjects of international politics. All the conversations center on the trauma experienced by Ukrainians and Westerners and the scenarios to destroy the Russian economy and bring down Putin. The perspective of “others” is never addressed.
This “double standard” practiced by the West is one of the reasons that separates the North and the South on Ukraine, among other points of contention. But there is more. The current crisis reveals the degree of independence acquired by the countries of the South over the last twenty years on the international scene. With the emergence of new powers, of which the BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are the most striking symbol, the countries of the South have more and more options on the military and economic levels.
Clearly, the time when the West received support from its former colonies can no longer be taken for granted. How else to explain the attitude of Mali, which allows itself to expel the French soldiers to replace them with Russians; or that of Saudi Arabia, in conflict with the United States over oil production and security in the Middle East, and whose crown prince sends President Biden for a walk; or that of the South African president, who accuses NATO of being responsible for the war in Ukraine; or the strong opposition encountered to the American idea, supported by Canada, of expelling Russia from the G20?
Russian aggression against Ukraine goes against all the principles adopted since 1945 by the signatories of the UN Charter. All members of the United Nations know this and are sorry. But, rightly or wrongly, the Western response frightens many countries of the South and can only convince them of the need to diversify their relations in order to limit their dependence on Westerners and to face an international scene as dangerous as unpredictable.