‘India Stands Tall & Proud on Its Own’: New Delhi on NATO Overtures

The remarks were made by India’s top diplomat at the UN as India assumes the rotating presidency of the 15-member UN Security Council for the month of December.

India’s top UN diplomat told the organization that “India stands tall and proud on its own” in reaction to a suggestion that NATO was trying to lure the 1.1 billion-strong country into an “anti-China” and “anti-Russia alliance”.

“India is too big a country,” India’s Permanent Representative in New York Ruchira Kamboj said.

For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently pointed out that NATO has been escalating tensions in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, the same way it has done in Europe. Moscow specified that the alliance's eastward expansion to Russia’s western borders was one of the primary reasons behind the special military operation in Ukraine that was launched in February.

Russia's top diplomat also warned that NATO is “playing with fire” by carrying out “provocations” around China. He explained that the alliance's activity in the Asia-Pacific was the chief reason behind the increasing military cooperation between Beijing and Moscow.

In its new ‘Strategic Concept’ unveiled at the NATO Summit in Madrid this June, the transatlantic military bloc addressed the “systemic challenges” it perceives from Beijing for the first time. Not only that, NATO also invited leaders of other Asian-Pacific countries Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea to its summit.

India Has ‘Important Relationship’ With Russia

Speaking at the UN HQ, Kamboj also highlighted that Delhi has an “important relationship” with Russia, through which India has significantly boosted energy and commercial ties in light of high global commodity prices caused by western attempts to phase Russia out of supply chains.

Meanwhile, the Indian diplomat said that Delhi favored “diplomacy and dialogue” to resolve the situation in Ukraine, underscoring that India is among the few countries speaking to “both sides” involved in the crisis.

Kamboj likewise commented that India has also been “very mindful” of the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.