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 India,
China and Russia account for 40 per cent of the world’s population, a
fifth of its economy and more than half of its nuclear warheads. Now they
appear to be forming a partnership to challenge the US-dominated world
order that has prevailed since the end of the Cold War.
Foreign
ministers from the three emerging giants met in Delhi yesterday to discuss
ways to build a more democratic “multipolar world”.
It
was the second such meeting in the past two years and came after an
unprecedented meeting between their respective leaders, Manmohan Singh, Hu
Jintao and Vladimir Putin, during the G8 summit in St Petersburg in July.
It
also came only four days after Mr Putin stunned Western officials by
railing against American foreign policy at a security conference in
Munich.
The
foreign ministers, Pranab Mukherjee, Li Zhao Xing and Sergei Lavrov,
emphasised that theirs was not an alliance against the United States. It
was, “on the contrary, intended to promote international harmony and
understanding”, a joint communiqué stated.
Their
formal agenda covered issues ranging from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, the
Middle East and North Korea to energy security, nuclear non-proliferation
and trade. The subtext, however, was clear: how to use their growing
economic and political muscle to prevent Washington from tackling such
issues alone.
“In
the long term, they feel that the whole structure of international
relations has to shift in their direction,” said Vinod C. Khanna, of the
Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi. “What has happened is that quite
independently they’ve reacted very similarly to recent
international events.”
Mr
Mukherjee said: “We agreed that cooperation rather than confrontation
should govern approaches to regional and global affairs. We also
agreed on the importance of the UN.”
Diplomats
say that it is premature to talk of a strategic axis between the world’s
largest and two most populous nations because they still have more
in common with the West than with each other.
Delhi
was close to Moscow in Soviet times, but has forged a new friendship with
Washington. Chinese relations were soured by its border wars with India in
1962 and the Soviet Union in 1969, and by its arms sales to Pakistan.
Russia appears keener than China or India to challenge American
hegemony. But there has been a convergence of interests as each struggles
to make the transition from a command economy to free markets. Since 2003
they have found further common ground in opposing the US-led invasion of
Iraq.
One
area of agreement is opposition to outside interference in separatist
conflicts in Chechnya, the northeast of India and the northwestern Chinese
region of Xinjiang.
Another
is energy. India and China are desperate for Russian oil and gas, and
Moscow is worried about its dependence on Western markets. But
their most significant common ground is opposition to US military
intervention in Iran. The joint statement did not mention Iran, but the
three countries have taken a common stance in calling for a negotiated
solution through the International Atomic Energy Agency. None of them
wants a nuclear-armed Iran, but Russia sells Tehran nuclear technology and
India and China need Iranian gas.
From
Timesonline
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