For the Prime Minister of India Narendra modi is becoming increasingly difficult to simultaneously maintain close ties with the US and Russia. Since the inauguration, the Prime Minister in may 2014, modi tried a different shape the foreign policy of the country. He had taken various measures to build India a multipolar to a unipolar world. Although modi’s tactical moves helped this South Asian country to become an important player in global geopolitics, she began to face problems because of its attempts to “balance” for the sake of compromise.
Lord Palmerston once said that the nation has no “eternal allies nor perpetual enemies”, only “eternal and immutable” interests. Prime Minister modi is also trying to defend national interests through its foreign policy. Perhaps he made the mistake of simultaneously supporting a multipolar world and a multipolar Asia. He spent a lot of effort and money for the sake of strengthening relations with all major world powers, but the results of his efforts were unsatisfactory.
As a result, the oil India deal with Russia is in jeopardy. Indian media reported that US sanctions threaten to derail the plans of leading Russian energy company Rosneft to acquire a 49 percent stake in Indian Essar Oil. The deal was foiled by the Office of foreign assets control of the U.S. Treasury.
The Americans included Rosneft in the list of sanctioned Russian companies in July 2014, shortly after Moscow was involved in the military conflict in the East of Ukraine, and in connection with the annexation of Crimea. After threats from the US Indian banks — which have invested more than $ 5 billion in Essar Oil Ltd, has expressed serious concern about the possible consequences of the transaction.
One senior Indian banker said: “Maybe we have to reconsider our participation in Essar Oil, if there will come Rosneft”. Currently, Essar Oil is trying to promote a deal with Rosneft, giving the Russian company the opportunity to enter the Indian energy market. The leaders of the Indian company says that enhanced cooperation with Russia will help to open the country’s retail sector of the energy business the world’s largest oil producers.
However, the U.S. Treasury has completely changed these plans. This not only forced the modi government to rethink its foreign policy, but now India has become positioned as a country with soft power, which only strengthened its defense and economic power. Now the modi government will have to overcome the negative effects of its foreign policy, a more considered approach to the solution of new problems. Otherwise new Delhi will not be able to achieve foreign policy success in the future.
