Russia–Ukraine war and India's quest for leading power status

Abstract

India's neutrality and failure to publicly criticise Russia is driven by the Modi government's quest to be a great/leading power. It believes that Moscow can aid New Delhi in achieving this goal by enhancing the security pillar of its foreign policy strategy. However, publicly criticising Russia will undermine India's security pillar and will prevent India from becoming a leading power. Thus, India's response to the Ukraine war might be best described as ‘varied consequentialism’. Additionally, India has also exhibited ‘strategic opportunism’; that is, it has employed norms and values strategically to pursue its aspirations to emerge as a leading power. It has sought to use the Global South's discontent with the US-led Western liberal order aggravated by the Russia–Ukraine war, to seek leadership of the Global South. It seeks to act as the leader of a new ‘non-alignment’, which has emerged as a consequence of the war.