Russia Urges India to Ease Tensions with China Amid Growing Tensions in Asia
During the ongoing military conflict with Pakistan, Russia, which has openly supported India, now wants India to de-escalate tensions with China. Russia, which enjoys a friendly relationship with China, has expressed its desire for India to improve ties with Beijing, and efforts in this direction have already begun.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in a statement, claimed that Western countries are attempting to pit India and China against each other. According to Russian state news agency TASS, Lavrov made these remarks during a diplomatic club meeting in Moscow on the topic “Boundaries Without Limits: The Role and Development of Cultural Diplomacy.” Lavrov highlighted the recent developments in the Asia-Pacific region, where the West has clearly pushed its anti-China agenda by labeling the region as the “Indo-Pacific,” with the aim of creating conflict between India and China, two of Russia’s key allies.
India-China Tensions
Lavrov, a vocal critic of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), which was established to counter China’s growing influence, has toned down his criticism since the formation of the AUKUS military alliance, comprising Australia, the UK, and the US. He noted that the West is attempting to undermine the role of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) in Asia.
He said, “Western allies want to play a prominent role here, just like they do in other parts of the world. They want to weaken ASEAN’s central role, which has been favorable to everyone for decades and based on consensus in the fields of politics, military cooperation, and defense.”
ASEAN is a regional group of 10 Southeast Asian nations that aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its members. The member countries include Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
Lavrov further claimed, “The rules of common consensus, the search for shared foundations—these are all things our Western partners have gradually started to bypass. They are enticing some ASEAN countries to join openly oppositional forums instead of integrated ones.” He also called for the establishment of a collective security framework in Eurasia.
Lavrov emphasized, “There is no other continent like Eurasia, where so many civilizations coexist and have maintained their identity and relevance in modern times. However, Eurasia is also the only continent without a continent-wide platform.” He pointed out that while sub-regional platforms exist in Africa, with the African Union, and in Latin America and the Caribbean with CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), Eurasia still lacks such a platform.