‘Operating in Grey Zone’: India Can’t 'Rely' on US to Deal With China, Says Ex-Foreign Secretary

India has upped its defence purchases from the US over the past five years, buying about $3.4 billion of armaments between 2016 and 2020. The country was designated a “major defence partner” of the US in 2016. In 2018, the US granted it “licence-free access” to a range of military and dual-use technologies that are otherwise regulated.

India’s former foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale, who retired in January 2020, has warned that New Delhi can’t rely entirely on American diplomatic and military support in resolving the ongoing boundary dispute between the two Asian powerhouses.

“If you want to be a major power, then you could only rely upon yourselves. Any major country or empire has only developed when it has built its own economy, its own scientific and innovative capabilities and subsequently its own military capacity," Gokhale said on Tuesday.

He remarked that India was operating in a “grey zone” when it comes to the question of forging partnerships with other nations, including with the US.

“I don’t think there is a black and white choice between aligning with somebody to the extent of entering into an unbreakable alliance or shunning a country altogether,” said the veteran diplomat.

“I think when it comes to diplomacy, we exist in a grey zone. Diplomacy is all about grey zones and I think we need to explore the boundaries of that zone,” he added.

Gokhale remarks came in response to a question whether New Delhi could rely on American support in dealing with China.

Besides serving as India’s foreign secretary, Gokhale has also been New Delhi’s envoy to Beijing and is considered one of the country’s top experts on Chinese affairs.

He has also written a new book, ‘The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate With India’, which was released this year, against the backdrop of an ongoing military standoff between the Indian Army and the People’s Liberation Army at the disputed eastern Ladakh border.

The PLA and the Indian Army have been embroiled in a standoff in the region for more than a year, having held 13 rounds of talks at military commander-level as well as high-level meetings in a bid to resolve the situation.

Troop disengagement between the two sides started in February this year. So far, the Indian Army and PLA have disengaged troops in the Galwan Valley, the northern and southern banks of Pangong Tso Lake, and the Gogra Post.

The most recent round of military commander-level talks on 10 October between the two nations and aiming to find a solution to the standoff, ended in stalemate. The PLA’s western command accused India of persisting with “unreasonable” demands during the negotiations.

India, meanwhile, reiterated that China’s “unilateral” attempts to alter the status quo at the LAC were responsible for the present crisis.

India Must Continue To Build on Ties With Russia, Says Gokhale

Gokhale further suggested that as well as the US, New Delhi must also continue to build on its ties with Russia which, he noted, had always stood by New Delhi in times of crisis.

“[Russia] is a strategic ally we have. There might be some issues, but let’s not forget that they have come to our help strategically when we have needed them to do so,” he pointed out.

Moscow’s military support was crucial in India’s victory over Pakistan in the 1971 Bangladesh War of Liberation, after the countries entered into a Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation. Recently, India’s outgoing ambassador to Moscow DB Venkatesh Varma described the 1971 pact as the most “significant” New Delhi has signed.

India is also Russia’s largest arms market, having accounted for 58 percent of overall defence imports between 2014 and 2018, according to figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

However, New Delhi’s growing reliance on the US, especially in the framework of the ‘Quad’ (a bloc consisting of Australia, Japan, India and the US) has evoked critical response from Moscow. Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has accused Washington of involving New Delhi in “anti-China” games and undermining Moscow's "privileged" ties with New Delhi.