India Not Intending to Side with US in Any Conflict: Academic on IMEC
© AP Photo / Evan Vucci
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Last week, New Delhi announced the India-Middle East-Economic Corridor (IMEC), with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy, the European Union, and the US.
The newly announced India-Middle East-Economic Corridor (IMEC) featuring two different corridors - the East and the Northern Corridor which connect India to mainland Europe, will be beneficial to Russia, a leading Australian academic has said.
The comments of Professor Joe Siracusa, who serves as the dean of Global Futures at Australia's Curtin University came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the US "jumped on this train at the last moment".
The comments of Professor Joe Siracusa, who serves as the dean of Global Futures at Australia's Curtin University came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the US "jumped on this train at the last moment".
"I believe that this is to our benefit, it will only help us develop logistics ... True, the Americans jumped on this train at the last moment, but I do not see much point for them in being in this project at all," Putin said in his address at the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok on Tuesday.
"Meanwhile, the additional movement of goods through this corridor is essentially an addition to our North-South project. We do not see anything here that could somehow interfere with us," he elaborated.
Against this background, Siracusa noted that the IMEC was President Biden's little mini-offering to the Global South, particularly to India and Pakistan.
According to him, anything that increases or improves transportation or commerce would benefit everybody in the region near or far.
According to him, anything that increases or improves transportation or commerce would benefit everybody in the region near or far.
"I have to tell you that spending a lot of money on India is a bad bet because India is not going to be siding with the United States in the event of a showdown with anybody. India is going to take care of India as they have been that way since the 1940s or since they got their own independence," Siracusa told Sputnik.
America's Growing Ties With India Have No Military/Political Impact
He underlined that this idea that the United States is trying to shore up and deepen relations with India, has almost no political impact or military impact.
The Australian strategic affairs pundit explained that it was America who was trying to develop an interest in India but the Indians don't have that in the United States.
Siracusa pointed out that the Indians may be riffing off of the reputation of being invited to the White House and the rest of it.
"But if the United States thinks they're going to get any blood and treasure out of India, at the end of the day, by developing their domestic products, their domestic issues, I think that's not going to work," he asserted.
QUAD Means Nothing, AUKUS is Worth a Zero
Siracusa opined that the Americans don't understand Australia, they don't understand what AUKUS is and they don't understand what India is. That's why, he suggested the QUAD means nothing and the AUKUS arrangement right now is next to nothing and is zero.
Siracusa stressed that America's deep relationships in the Far East with South Korea and Japan would predate the present crises and things like that.
"America has to realize that if it's going to pivot to Asia, it's going to have to get a little more clever than it is right now. Of course, India's on the Indian Ocean and astride the Malacca Straits and all that. So that's very important," the Australian professor commented.
But this idea that the United States is developing or deepening a defensive relationship, a strategic relation with India, that's nonsense, he reckoned.
Siracusa insisted that the Indians weren't going to let it happen because they were not going to carry anybody's chestnuts for anybody else. They're in it for themselves now, and they're not going to be drawn into either Washington, Moscow, or Beijing.
Siracusa insisted that the Indians weren't going to let it happen because they were not going to carry anybody's chestnuts for anybody else. They're in it for themselves now, and they're not going to be drawn into either Washington, Moscow, or Beijing.
12 September 2023, 18:20
