New Delhi has emerged as the station of choice for notable world leaders

The fighting is in Ukraine, thousands of kilometres from India, but New Delhi is the destination for world leaders to rein in invader Russia. Wonder why, unless they all need to be personally reassured of India’s backing to their foreign policies on certain parts of Asia, like the Indo-Pacific, that are undergoing a concern-filled rejig after Vladimir Putin’s aggression. The visits are simply numerous. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited New Delhi to announce an increased investment target in India and ended up pitching for greater ties between the two countries for a free and open Indo-Pacific particularly when the world was “disturbed over Ukraine”. His Australian counterpart Scott Morrison held a virtual meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and remarked that while the QUAD was distressed over Ukraine, “our focus is very much on Indo-Pacific”. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived next. India hosted him despite his unwarranted remarks on Kashmir, perhaps to send a message that it is having to deal with China’s border standoff on its own and yet face pressure on Ukraine. Then comes the visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He is probably more bothered about India’s purchase of discounted Russian crude and arranging a rupee-rouble payment system in view of the western sanctions. German National Security Advisor Jens Plotner, here Wednesday, said Germany understood India’s challenges and saw no reason for Europe to “preach and teach” New Delhi over its position on the Ukraine issue.

He could not have been less diplomatic about India’s stand on Russia, considering Germany too has an ongoing arrangement for importing Russian gas (though it is trying to cut back on it). But he put the finger on the pulse when he said Putin’s logic that historically Ukraine belonged to the Soviet Union could encourage somebody as big as Russia in Asia to follow suit. As if on cue, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar on, according to the latter’s tweet, “developments pertaining to the Indo-Pacific, Ukraine and global economy”. As members of the QUAD, the US and India, along with Japan and Australia, had met on more or less a similar agenda in early March. The conversation is to be followed by US Deputy National Security Adviser Daleep Singh to prepare ground for the ‘2+2’ ministerial dialogue in Washington next month but his presence at this juncture has a meaning. He is the second American official, after US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland, in this part of the world. Foreign Ministers of Austria and Greece were also in India last week. Last but not the least, British Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss brings a message to New Delhi about supporting the western stand on Ukraine. The diplomatic tours notwithstanding, the point remains that India’s neutral stand on Russia and open sympathy for Ukraine have not diminished New Delhi’s importance when it comes to the west’s standpoint on the Indo-Pacific.