by Chris Black
Yesterday on the 11th of April the “American” government held its fourth annual ministerial 2+2 summit with Indian officials in Washington D.C. where The Jewish Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Black Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with their Indian counterparts.
During a break in the conference Secretary Blinken threatened India with sanctions by mentioning that the United States has still not decided if India will be subject to sanctions under the Counter America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, popularly called CAATSA. A decision on this action has been pending since India bought Russian S-400 missile systems, but the American government has held off and instead opted to negotiate with India for over a year on this topic.
This is the third time since February that the United States has hinted at imposing sanctions against India, with the second to last comment about possible sanctions having been made in early March after India refused to back a United Nations General Assembly vote condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Each time India has reacted by ignoring the Americans, or pointing out that India buys as much fuel from Russia in a month as Europe does in a single afternoon. Furthermore, India’s two largest suppliers of military equipment are Russia and Israel, with France also at the top of the list.
Meanwhile China is rapidly attempting to normalize relations with India, wishing to put any border disputes to one side so that the two nations can both be present at the upcoming BRICS summit which will be held in China so that the nations may further economic integration independent of Western powers. India agreed to a similar framework in 188 and it is probable they will again. This
was made even more likely by the fact that during the aforementioned ministerial summit the Indian officials refused to join US officials in explicitly outlining China as an Indo-Pacific threat.
India does not need America, and it certainly does not need Europe. America no longer commands enough respect on the world stage for India to take threats of sanctions at all seriously. The world is moving on from American hegemony and India is making the smart decision by refusing to chain itself to the sinking ship which is the Western world.