Miller Analyzes India’s Position on War in Ukraine
Manjari Chatterjee Miller, currently a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and on leave from the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University where she is an Associate Professor of International Relations, published an article in Barron’s exploring India’s unresolved border dispute with China and how this has shaped its international position today.
Miller co-authored the article, titled “India Is Reluctant to Condemn Russia. Its History with China Looms Large,” with Zoe Jordan, a research associate at CFR. In their piece, the two outline China and India’s historic border dispute and how continued skirmishes over the Line of Actual Control between the two countries have fueled worries of Chinese encroachment in New Delhi. Regarding current geopolitical crises, India has yet to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is in accordance with its historical doctrine of non-alignment and its contemporary doctrine of strategic autonomy. According to Miller and Jordan, this is in large part due to India’s fear that any action on their part could drive either Russia or the United States to deepen ties with China thus emboldening the country in their continued border feuds.
An excerpt:
For New Delhi, the Ukraine conflict’s best-case scenario is a quick resolution that advances the emergence of a multipolar world in which both Russia and the U.S. balance a rising China. This is a fundamental reason why India is reluctant to condemn Russia, for fear of Russia perceiving India as choosing to side with the U.S., and thereby driving it into a closer relationship with China…New Delhi also is concerned that the Russia-created playbook in Ukraine offers China a lesson, not in relation to Taiwan as the U.S. fears, but for India’s border territories.
The full article can be read on Barron’s website.
Manjari Chatterjee Miller is an Associate Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. Currently, on leave from the School, she is serving as a Senior Fellow at CFR where she focuses on India, Pakistan, and South Asia. She works on foreign policy and security issues with a focus on South and East Asia. Her most recent book, Routledge Handbook of China–India Relations (Routledge & CRC Press, 2020), is a comprehensive guide to the Chinese-Indian relationship covering expansive ideas ranging from the historical relationship to current disputes to AI. Learn more about her on her Pardee School faculty profile.