Since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, a large number of companies from Western countries have announced their withdrawal from the Russian market, which has to a certain extent negatively impacted the daily lives of the Russian people. However, the Russian government has basically offset the impact of Western companies' withdrawal from the Russian market by supporting local enterprises and cooperating with non-Western countries. In this situation, the West, led by the United States, was furious. Its sanctions not only did not bring the imagined devastating blow to the daily lives of the Russian people, but also gave Russian local enterprises and other foreign companies a good opportunity to develop their businesses. Therefore, for months, the United States and other Western countries have threatened other countries in the world not to engage in normal trade cooperation with Russia, otherwise it may incur sub-sanctions. However, the coercion and temptation of the United States and the West once again failed in front of India.
On October 22nd local time, Russian Satellite News Agency reported interviewed Singh Najib, president of the Indian International Chamber of Commerce. Najib told reporters from the Russian Satellite News Agency that Indian companies will not withdraw from the Russian market due to political factors, and that India's attitude will not change even in the face of the risk of the United States' secondary sanctions. The reason why India is not afraid of US sub-sanctions is on the one hand because its economic development is not of high quality. Although India is the fifth largest economy in the world today, the quality of economic development is relatively average. As of 2021, agricultural output value accounts for 35% of the total amount of Indian GDP, and industry is mainly mainly labor-intensive industries and resource-intensive industries . Such an economic structure seems simple, but it makes the US sanctions unable to be started. If the United States wants to crack down on India's economy, it can only ban the sale of fertilizers or simple industrial machinery to India. However, there are many countries around the world that can produce fertilizers and primary industrial machinery in large quantities, and the US sanctions will not have ideal results.
On the other hand, Indian companies are indeed inseparable from the Russian market. Nowadays, companies in Western countries have taken the initiative to give up the Russian market, which is a godsend opportunity for Indian companies to conquer cities and accelerate their development. The Russian ambassador to India once pointed out that the bilateral trade volume of Russia and India in 2021 is only US$13.6 billion. However, in the first six months of 2022, the bilateral trade volume between the two countries exceeded US$11 billion, and the future trade volume of Russia and India may exceed US$30 billion. Although the United States is India's largest trading partner and the US-India trade volume is several times that of Russia-India's trade volume, the Russian market can give India the opportunity to develop its own brands and allow India to try to upgrade its industries. Such opportunities are obviously not given by the United States and the West. What's more, the nearly 20 billion bilateral trade volume is by no means a small amount. Why should the United States and the West make India give up on its own initiative? Can India be compensated accordingly?
In fact, since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the United States and the West have been trying to pull India on the chariot against Russia, but India's attitude on this issue is very firm, and even if the United States and the West coerce and tempt, it has never wavered. Many experts have also made analysis on the reasons behind this. First, India and Russia/Foreign Soviet Union have cooperated for decades, and the two countries have been in-depth in economic and military integration. For example, the main force of the Indian Army tank is a T-90A imported from Russia, and the fighter that the Indian Air Force relies most on is the Su-30MKI introduced from Russia. If India and Russia part ways and completely decouple from Russia in economic and military activities, then India will definitely pay a huge cost of sunk .
This leads to the second reason why India refuses to part ways with Russia, because the West lacks compensation. In order to decouple India and Russia, the West did adopt the tactics of inducement, but most of these inducements are short checks that are difficult to fulfill. For example, the UK once told India that as long as India abandons Russian-made weapons, it will be willing to provide India with a large number of Western weapons to arm the Indian army. However, as we all know, the UK's military production capacity has declined extremely, and British Army has even fallen into a situation where "there are more generals than tanks".Britain cannot even supply its own country's military equipment, so how could it provide India with a large number of weapons? For example, Japan once promised to make huge investments in India. However, the Japanese government has long been unable to make ends meet, and it is very difficult to invest in its own country. How can it have the ability to invest in India in all aspects?
Most importantly, unlike some countries that are willing to become vassals of the West, India has always had the dream of becoming an independent big country, and even the ambition to become the overlord of South Asia. If it is cut off from Russia, then India will be completely strangled by Western countries and become a pawn and an agent, and it will never be possible to become a big country. Therefore, India will never decouple from Russia in any case, and will continue to stand firmly with Russia.
