Putin ‘triangle’ has Delhi in circles

Except that they missed something: At the very first meeting between the Foreign Ministers of these three nations in New York in September, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan raised the issue of the ‘‘tension between India and Pakistan’’ with External Affairs minister Yashwant Sinha, and suggested that New Delhi start a dialogue with Islamabad.

Highly placed sources told The Indian Express that Sinha was forced to point out to his Chinese counterpart that not only was this meeting ‘‘not the occasion’’ to raise such issues, but that Islamabad was the real source of cross-border terrorism.

That’s not all. Over the last couple of days in Moscow, a Joint Working Group on terrorism between Russia and Pakistan has been underway, co-chaired by Russian deputy foreign minister Anatoly Safonov and Pakistan’s additional secretary Aneesuddin Ahmed. Ostensibly to keep Pakistan ‘‘engaged’’ on the issue of international terrorism, the JWG met in the long shadow of Putin’s remarks about the unstable cocktail that dominates Pakistan: nuclear weapons, terrorismand Islamic fundamentalism.

Reports from Russia speak of yet another meeting on ‘‘strategic stability’’ between Moscow and Islamabad scheduled for next year. While Indian officials pointed out that despite the ‘‘strategic partnership’’ between India and Russia, such a sustained dialogue on counter-terrorism still did not exist.

As if the ‘‘freewheeling behaviour’’ of these Asian giants vis-a-vis Pakistan was not enough, analysts here also pointed to the manner in which both Russia and China had decided to cut their own, private deals with the US on Iraq.

Barely 10 days ago, just as he readied for his Asian tour, Putin met Bush who reassured him that Washington would not only look after Russia’s ‘‘economic interests’’ in Iraq, but keep Moscow duly informed about the decisions it took in the international arena. Putin’s pragmatic streak has certainly dominated Moscow’s foreign policy since he came to power a couple of years ago.

For decades during the Cold War, the former Soviet Union and China were arch-enemies. Today, as much as 40 per cent of Russia’s arms are bought by China. (India is the second largest, with 25 per cent.) Official trade figures between Russia and China are $10 billion annually, while unofficial trade is another $10 billion. In contrast, Indo-Russian trade is a lowly $1.5 billion annually.

And while trade between India and China is some $3 billion, the trade surplus between China and the US, in favour of Beijing, is a staggering $60 billion. Moscow, meanwhile, has made no bones about its overwhelming need to integrate with the West. It has agreed to abandon the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in favour of the US Ballistic Missile defence system, allowed the Americans into its Central Asian sphere of influence, accepted the expansion of NATO up to its frontiers, and most recently cut a deal on Iraq. China, on the other hand, for all its anti-American rhetoric, has not once publicly spoken out against US strategy on Baghdad.

Even though it is a permanent member of the Security Council, Beijing has never in recent months considered abstaining, leave alone opposing a Security Council vote on Iraq.