India Should Seize Moment: Offer Peacekeepers To Ukraine To Strengthen Global Role

Without losing any time and momentum India should build on the breathtaking scope of the COMPACT it entered into with the US and get busy on the world stage, as envisioned in the joint statement that was issued at the end of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit, put together post haste, to the United States.

It was done to re-welcome President Trump onto the world stage and to redefine the direction and pace of the bilateral relationship. It is a document in a hurry, put together, seemingly without demurrals, in record time.

The Modi-Trump initiative is explicitly named: the U.S.-India COMPACT (Catalyzing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology) for the 21st Century. Never before in the annals of bilateral relationship have the contours and expectations of the relationship between India and the US been defined so sharply.

The agreement more or less confers the status of a quasi ally, facilitates a quasi seat at the high table as if India were a non NATO ally. Having been conferred a status it is better to play the part. Only the small-minded will say the role envisioned is that of a very junior partner.

Creative diplomacy: It is time India looked beyond the jarring notes be it on tariffs or the shackles on our deported countrymen and women who illegally tried to enter the United States and focus instead on the deliverables and the doables. Creative diplomacy is of the essence. There was quibbling, for instance, over illegal immigrants being deported in military flights in shackles at American cost.

Creative diplomacy seems to have yielded a solution: a bridging stop at Costa Rica. There the stigma of shackles will fall away and illegal immigrants can come home to a proper welcome -- without shackles and paid for by Indian taxpayer.

Everybody is satisfied: the Americans don’t do interminable military airlifts at their cost, opposition here is happy that no shackles are there, and Costa Rica stands to make a lot of money because there are a lot of Indian immigrants.

Similarly, the `catalyzing opportunities for military partnership' part of the COMPACT presents many opportunities for Indian initiatives and innovations. Paragraphs 28 and 31 of the joint statement are specific in this regard. The former says,

“The leaders resolved to increase cooperation, enhance diplomatic consultations, and increase tangible collaboration with partners in the Middle East.” It is formulation rich in possibilities that have the potential to throw off the yoke of the past.

More pertinently Para 31, which contains high American praise for Indian actions, provides the scope for activism. It says, “The leaders also resolved to advance military cooperation in multinational settings to advance global peace and security. The leaders applauded India’s decision to take on a future leadership role in the Combined Maritime Forces naval task force to help secure sea lanes in the Arabian Sea.”

Testing ground: Ukraine presents the perfect testing ground for advancing such co-operation. It is a fast developing scenario, where Trump has deftly cut off the Europeans and the efforts of the previous Biden administration that he so patently despises and whose work he is assiduously working to undo. Trump thinks that “even a half-baked negotiator” could have settled this years ago. We know Trump is fully baked and a hard boiled wonderland all by himself. And he has already unstintingly praised Modi's negotiating skills. It is here India can make a grand entrance. Already Prime Minister Modi has taken a train ride to Kyiv and has hugged all the three primus inter pares – Trump, Putin, and Zelensky – with great gusto and on many occasions.

Personal chemistry with all of them is more than just peachy keen going by MEA briefings. Not only is the Prime Minister in touch with these leaders regularly but also his officials in the Ministry of External Affairs, going by the utterances of the foreign secretary, Vikram Misri. As Trump cuts through the Gordian Knot that is Ukraine's tangled mess, European countries – France, Britain, Sweden, Netherland – are already jockeying to send peace keepers into Ukraine as part a disengagement process.

Russia is having none of that, as its foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has made clear. No NATO Troops in Ukraine, which is the chicken and egg thing for the Russians, and the casus belli as well as Biden pushed NATO relentlessly eastward, waving a red rag wildly.

Man of peace: Prime Minister Modi is for peace. He has said so many times. He should therefore play the peace-keeper, offer to send troops to the region. Russians wouldn't be cold to that, and neither would Zelensky. There would be no Chinese troops there either, which is a march stolen on them as well and will be good practice to put into use in the Quad as well. We already send out troops all over the world so we have plenty of experience in that area.

The offer of peace-keeping troops to the region will also serve Modi to solidify the relations with the US, and set the clock straight on another occasion where India missed deploying troops - in Iraq a couple of decades back in 2003 - as part of the American coalition of the willing. The Americans were then even willing to have Indian troops away from the main action, and stationed in Kurdish areas. We almost bit the bait: we had done table top exercises, identified a division as well as a commander for the troops. Then Atal Behari Vajpayee developed cold feet.

This time, the joint statement has put us bang in the middle of such future coalitions put together by the Americans. We are already signed up. Last time there was unnecessary squeamishness over the optics of having an Indian commander serve under an uniformed American. There was even some misconceived talk about a UN mandate requirement We all know how effective the UN has been in the interim. In West Asia for instance. Twenty-one years later, we are, as per the statement, partners with convergences and benefits. Time to put it to test.

The author is Executive Editor, The Free Press Journal