Thank you dear subscribers, we are overwhelmed with your response.
Your Turn is a unique section from ThePrint featuring points of view from its subscribers. If you are a subscriber, have a point of view, please send it to us. If not, do subscribe here: https://theprint.in/subscribe/
On June 28, 1919 the Treaty of Versailles was signed. This Treaty had many dimensions to it. But the League of Nations (the League) was key to it. It was a great experiment in peacemaking as well as crafting of general international organization of sovereign states in International Law (IL) and International Relations. It is another issue that member States of the League were less interested in upholding the principles of IL and more into balance of power, that is why 1939 witnessed the start of Second World War. And therefore, it is wrong to blame the League as dysfunctional, it is alike today’s UN which is quite similar also to the League in terms of its conceptual foundations. League was opposed to countries having alliances.
International Relations is full of examples where it is observed that war does not help achieve anything except for ruthless destruction of livelihoods. Yes, there have been notable exceptions, but they remain few even in cases of bilateral wars of nation-states. Even the First World War started as a consequence of Austria-Hungary attacking Serbia on July 28, 1914. Initially, it was a bilateral war that got expanded to include major powers Russia, UK, France, US and Italy. The 1919 Treaty was a document of universal relevance. Its useful resonance can be felt unknowingly to this date in international diplomacy as the League became the first global experiment in the quest for ‘outlawry’ of war. The League was meant to prevent wars.
Thus, in the event of ‘rupture’ in the relations among the members states, the League prescribed ‘cooling off’ period that would enable the parties to sit on the negotiating table.
The purpose was to avoid any escalation of a dispute into another World War. The League did manage to solve some territorial disputes. UN could have too played a greater role in the current Russia-Ukraine war; is not a mere bilateral war since the NATO block is arming Ukraine against Russia.
On the other hand, countries such as North Korea provide armaments (missiles, artillery shells etc) and China indirectly provides assistance for the Russian war time economy. Since March 2022, there have been occasions of conflagrations including Russian threat of use of nuclear weapons. President Biden will never send US troops to Ukraine. But President Macron did not rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine. So, one can keep blaming each other (West, East) and justify (depending on which side of the truth one wants to look at) continuation of the Ukraine war despite the fact that Ukraine is likely to be turned into a dysfunctional rump State. During his recent State visit in July 2024, Prime Minister Modi told President Putin that not war but diplomacy will lead to peace. However, it is easier said than done. Ukraine wants to get into EU and NATO while it fights for its existence and Russia gives excuse of threat from NATO on its border as the reason for it’s so called ‘Special Military Operation’. Despite availability of all modern technologies, the war in Ukraine till some extent is being fought in the First World War style as shown in the use of primitive and gruesome kind of trench warfare, chemical weapons, gun fights between soldiers on metre by metre of land. Only India in the world has good relations with all countries involved in this war.
Since the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, India always had an independent foreign policy (Non-Alignment; Strategic Autonomy). India has never chosen to become a security treaty ally of either the Russian bloc or US bloc unlike that done by Pakistan, Japan and Cuba etc since the time of Nehru. Under PM Modi, India became very close to the West, still India’s relationship with Russia are strong. Good ties with Russia has helped India manage its adversarial relations with China, as Russia and China come close to checkmate the Americans. China claims the Indian territories of Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh as its own. In this situation India’s relations with Russia provides her strategic leverage against China. Indian, Chinese Foreign Ministers adopted a joint statement in Moscow on September 10, 2020 exhibiting equilibrium.
This took shape few days after Indian and Chinese troops had averted a fourth war since 1962 (it was won by China, second in 1967 won by India, third in 1987 was a Standoff that barely avoided a war) on their border as the Ladakh Standoff had started in May 2020. Given the army size, armaments possessed by both, a war between India and China will be World War (as Prime Minister Nehru had once said). The China led SCO is as per definition of UN Charter (IL), India being SCO member helps her attain equilibrium with China.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint