As he joins the G7 leaders in Hiroshima this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi must try and recalibrate India’s great power relations, reposition the country to deal with the unfolding structural changes in the world economy, and reassess its priorities in the multilateral arena. The Hiroshima summit is about uniting the advanced nations to confront the challenges presented by Russia and China and widening the G7 coalition to include key non-Western nations. The G7 countries plan to intensify the sanctions regime against Russia, whose war against Ukraine continues. The US and Japan also want to bring the European partners fully on board in confronting the China challenge. While the Europeans see the dangers of Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine, they are less vocal about the Chinese ambitions for Asian hegemony. India has the opposite problem: While coping with the multidimensional threat from China has become Modi’s principal preoccupation, he has tended to mince words on the Russian war in Ukraine and its implications for global order, especially the sovereignty and territorial integrity of nations.
That the US needs India to balance China has given Delhi some room for manoeuvre on the Russian question. But that room will continue to shrink as Moscow’s war against Ukraine enters the 16th month. Military dependence on Russia, which is locked in an unwinnable confrontation with the West and hopelessly tied to China, India’s principal adversary, does not bode very well for Delhi. Navigating paths out of difficult corners must be a high priority for the PM in his engagement with the G7 leaders. At the same time, Delhi must seize the new possibilities to accelerate its economic growth in partnership with the G7 countries. The US-China confrontation is no longer a narrow geo-political one, but also geo-economic, and that promises an overhaul of the world economic system.
