My Take | For superpowers, allies can be worse than enemies
- The United States has been forced to let India off the hook for not condemning Russia, while China may be helping with sanctions against Russia despite rhetoric of a ‘no limits’ partnership
Prickly allies are difficult to manage, even or specially for superpowers. China and the United States have had their hands full lately with so-called friends. India, a quarter of the Quad security partnership, has decided to do “a China” on Ukraine and kept its options open by refusing to condemn Russia, with which it is friendly.
Given New Delhi’s pivotal role in the US “Indo-Pacific strategy”, Washington dare not apply too much diplomatic pressure or public criticism. At times, it even makes excuses for India, such as its reliance on Russian weapons supply and how the US is helping the Indians to diversify its weapons sources, namely sell them more advanced, rather than outdated, US-made weapons. But that also means the US can’t go full-on against China for taking a similar stance on Ukraine without being accused of hypocrisy and double standards.
Meanwhile, China has a bigger problem with Russia. Having jointly declared there were “no limits” to their partnership at the Beijing Winter Olympics, it turns out the Chinese have been observing quite a few limits, such as staying away from actions that might be seen as breaching Western-led sanctions against Russia. It seems Beijing’s support has been mostly rhetorical, rather than material.
Like India, it has refused to condemn Russia, and has supported Moscow’s narrative that the invasion, which the Russians still call a “special military operation”, was prompted by relentless Nato eastward expansion up to the Russian borders.
China has no intentions to arm Russia, though some in Washington claim it is trying to do just that. Publicly, it has criticised Western-led sanctions. But it may be helping with the sanctions anyway. Chinese state-run banks have refused to continue financing domestic purchases of Russian commodities and other state-owned companies have stopped selling aircraft parts to Russian airlines.
Investments in the Russian gas market have been suspended by at least one big state oil firm, Sinopec. Some big Chinese firms have reportedly avoided Russian business out of fear of being targeted by the Western alliance for secondary sanctions.