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The USA Intends To Lessen India’s Dependency On Russia.

The United States and Russia have long been at odds, and this has had a direct impact on countries that have links with both of them. India has always been a friend of Russia and has been working hard to strengthen its ties with the United States. The world was shocked recently by Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine in the shape of a conflict. The long-running disputes between the United States and Russia were aggravated. Following multiple sanctions on Russia, the international community rallied around Ukraine. 

What happened when Russia invaded Ukraine?

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union had increased sanctions against the country in an effort to isolate it. These were the most recent policies, which are among the most draconian in contemporary history.

Joe Biden, the US president, imposed sanctions on four Russian banks, including V.E.B., as well as corrupt billionaires linked to Putin, in a speech on February 22. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared that all major Russian banks’ assets were frozen and were barred from the UK financial system, as well as it followed by a suspension of several export licences to Russia. It also froze the assets of over 100 other persons and businesses and imposed a deposit restriction for Russian residents in UK bank accounts. Major Russian banks are now excluded from SWIFT, but there will still be restricted access to ensure the ability to pay for gas supplies. Furthermore, the West declared that sanctions to be imposed on the Russian Central Bank, which owns $630 billion in foreign reserves, to prevent it from selling assets in order to mitigate the impact of sanctions. 

The United States implemented export controls, a unique sanction which aimed at limiting Russian access to high-tech components, including hardware and software, manufactured with any parts or intellectual property from the United States. Any individual or firm wishing to export technology, semiconductors, encryption software, lasers, or sensors to Russia had to apply for a licence, which was automatically refused. Sanctions against the individual or firm were employed as part of the enforcement mechanism, with the shipbuilding, aircraft, and defence industries being targeted.

India’s Support for Russia in the UN assembly:

The Russian-Indian relationship has traditionally been cordial. The leaders have terrific chemistry, and residents are friendly to one another. Ordinary Russians consider India as a trustworthy ally with whom their nation enjoys a peaceful relationship. 

The Soviet Union had used its veto multiple times to defend India against Western resolutions on Kashmir, India’s invasion of Goa, and the 1971 war with Pakistan that resulted in Bangladesh’s formation. India, on the other hand, voted no on resolutions denouncing the Soviet invasions of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and Afghanistan a decade later. It voted against denouncing Russian operations in Chechnya and Abkhazia in the twenty-first century. Behind this is India’s long-standing opposition to Western imperialism – albeit, granted, it should also oppose Russian imperialism to be consistent. India’s decision not to speak at the UN further highlights the fact that Western involvement with India reflects a shift in Western perceptions of India rather than any fundamental transformation within India. During the Cold War, India was widely seen as a nation of spiritualism, yoga, poverty, and curry by Western eyes. Because of its non-alignment, it became reliant on the Soviet Union for armament acquisitions, which continues to this day. 

In recent years, India’s foreign policy has proved that, for the most part, you can have your cake and eat it too by keeping excellent ties with countries that are antagonistic to each other. It has been given a pass when it has interacted with countries with whom the West disagrees, such as Iran. While India’s continuing acquisition of a Russian missile defence system has prompted US sanctions. 

The USA claims to provide aid for India to lessen the country’s dependency on the trade with Russia, more promptly its reliance on weaponry and defence deals with Russia. The two countries, USA and India have been in process of strengthening their relations for the past decade. As part of the Framework on Defence Technology, India and the US have finalised an agreement to create an air-launched unmanned aerial vehicle. India and the United States have committed to increasing defence technology collaboration by pursuing thorough planning and making demonstrable progress on a variety of programmes, in keeping with their fast increasing strategic partnerships. MH-60Rs, P-8s, C-130Js, C-17s, AH[1]64s, CH-47s, and M777 howitzers were among the MH-60Rs, P-8s, C-130Js, C-17s, AH[1]64s, CH-47s, and M777 howitzers that India purchased from the US throughout the years. India may buy further US systems in the future, such as F-21s (former F-16s), F/A-18s, additional P-8s, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) (UAVs).

India’s primary concern is internal development. Before India to play the sort of global role that many in the West envision, it will need years of steady economic growth. While its economy is improving, the epidemic had a toll. Based on its own thoughts and reasons, it has built a framework for the country’s future prosperity and foreign policy. With the help of the US, India may be able to get acknowledgement and support for its “great power identity.” There is little question that diplomacy with the United States has always been a priority for India’s foreign policy, and the two nations’ defense ties provide a firm basis for their relationship. According to India, the United States is more than simply the superpower with the most global reach, the most formidable military, and the most advanced economy and technology. It could also help India in areas such as investment, economics and trade, science and technology, military, and diplomacy.

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China Expanding its Arsenal.

For the first time in years, China’s nuclear arsenal looks to be growing significantly. China possessed just approximately twenty silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles in the last couple of decades. However, fresh information suggests that the government is set to build around 200 additional missile silos. China’s current nuclear weapons modernization and updating program is operating at an unparalleled pace and scope. Over the next decade, China’s nuclear weapons arsenal is likely to increase (if not triple or quadruple. If this is the aim, the new silos may be able to help China achieve it. The country’s growing concern is that the US military capabilities, including the likes of missile defense and conventional precision strike weapons, might damage China’s ability to respond to a nuclear assault. The potential vulnerability of China’s nuclear deterrence is continuously reminded by new developments in US capabilities. As a corollary, Chinese experts have repeatedly agreed that the country’s nuclear capabilities must be gradually modernized. For decades, it appeared that China’s senior political officials felt the country’s top goals were more vital than a huge nuclear buildup—especially at a time when China saw no imminent external danger, but that time is passed.

The actions of the other major nuclear weapons nations have had a significant impact on China’s development of a sea-based nuclear capability. Only four years after the United States launched its first nuclear submarines and one year after the Soviet Union, China chose to begin manufacturing nuclear submarines in 195810. Land-based ballistic missiles were prioritized above nuclear submarines and submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) development during the Cold War. However, when China’s economy grew rapidly, it began to devote more resources to the nuclear submarine and SLBM projects, making significant advances since then. China has deployed four 094-class nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs), China’s second-generation SSBNs, and is developing two more, according to official US estimates and open-source information. Twelve JL-2 SLBMs are installed on every 094 submarine. China is also working on the JL-3 SLBM and the next-generation 096-class SSBN. For China’s entire nuclear deterrence, this developing capacity will become increasingly significant. However, with this increased capability comes a slew of new concerns for China.

China’s continuous steps towards the development of a nuclear arsenal are being accompanied by increased disagreements with Western countries over topics such as human rights, democratic principles, the rule of law, and international conventions under its present leadership. These developments have led China’s leadership to conclude that the country is confronted with a new geopolitical reality in which Western countries are purposefully causing trouble and inventing excuses to demonise and contain China, fearful that the country’s rise will threaten the West’s dominance in the international system. Beijing believes that Western antagonism is the outcome of larger structural changes in the international system and that the only answer is to cement its own power until Western countries accept the new reality—that China’s success and strength are undeniable.

President Xi Jinping stressed the importance of the Second Artillery—the Chinese military’s missile branch, which was eventually raised to full military service and renamed the Rocket Force—shortly after taking office in 2012, calling it “a strategic foundation of China’s great power status.” He urged the military to “accelerate the building of sophisticated strategic deterrent” capabilities during a major national political conference in March 2021, which was the toughest and most specific public command on the matter to come from China’s highest-ranking leader. With China’s national decision-making authority increasingly concentrated in one person, the present paramount leader’s support for increased nuclear capabilities might go a long way toward shifting the country’s nuclear development strategy away from its previous moderate path.

In 2020, Beijing also began to deploy the dual-capable hypersonic glide-vehicle system paired with a medium-range ballistic missile, known as DF-17. The U.S. intelligence alleged that China tested in July a nuclear-capable hypersonic glide vehicle, carried on a rocket, that flew through low-orbit space and circled the globe before striking within two dozen miles of its target.

The stakes are raised by the possibility of a clash over Taiwan:

Experts have felt that the free decline in US-China ties since 2020 has increased the risk of a crisis or confrontation involving nuclear weapons use by either side. As the conventional (non-nuclear) military balance in East Asia continues to favour China, one major concern is whether the US would be more tempted to threaten nuclear use as a deterrent to China’s use of force against Taiwan.

Analysts have expressed concern that the US may use low-yield nuclear weapons against a Chinese navy en route to attack Taiwan. If the United States’ nuclear weapons and missile defences combined to severely limit China’s capacity to react, that temptation may be much stronger. In this sense, a greater nuclear arsenal has improved China’s prospects of preventing the US from using nuclear weapons, but it may also raise China’s confidence in using conventional weapons. 

Conclusion:    

Beijing’s nuclear buildup is ultimately an attempt to persuade geopolitical power to abandon the ostensible strategic assault in favour of a mutual vulnerability relationship in which no country has the capability or inclination to threaten nuclear war without risking destruction. China’s expanding capabilities are aimed at strengthening its capacity to fight and win wars, a euphemism for controlling the geopolitical scenario, pressure Taiwan and rival claimants in territorial disputes, counter a third-party involvement in a conflict along the periphery, and project dominance internationally.

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