Blinken-Lavrov G20 meeting a welcome development

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken acted correctly in requesting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for a face to face meeting at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in New Delhi. Some other Foreign Ministers from G20 countries acted in a childish manner by declining to attend External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s dinner for his G20 counterparts from other countries on 2 March. The purpose was to show to their electorates back home that each of them was a firm believer in the obnoxious doctrine of untouchability, with their choice for the role of Untouchable being Minister Lavrov. By skipping a dinner hosted by the External Affairs Minister of the world’s most populous democracy, they revealed their inability or unwillingness to break away from the days of the Atlantic Doctrine. It may be recalled that in 1944, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Britain was explicit that the rights and freedoms mentioned and sought to be guaranteed in the Atlantic Charter applied only to those of European ethnicity, the Master Race in the mind of Churchill. It must be said that in holding such a view, he was showing a bit more liberalism than Adolf Hitler, who too believed in a Master Race, except that his definition of such an absurd and odious concept was limited to a much smaller number. In Hitler’s view, even those who were 100% German, such as members of the Jewish community, were excluded from his definition of the Herrenvolk. So deep-rooted was Churchill’s distaste for those not of European ancestry that he forecast that there would be chaos in India once the British ceased to govern a country partitioned by the British government on the illogical grounds that Hindus and Muslims formed two entirely separate nations. Small wonder that the country that was created out of that deliberately held misconception, Pakistan, itself splintered into two different states, and is in the process of undergoing further fission. As for India, a country whose leaders including the Mahatma he considered to be “men of straw” of whom in a few years, no trace will remain, it has overtaken Britain in GDP and is poised before the close of a possible third term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be the third biggest economy in the world. The Mahatma had faith in the people of India, although they had been left in penury and illiteracy by the British Raj, and ensured universal suffrage from the start.
The obsession of the governments of countries on both sides of the North Atlantic with Russia and Ukraine show that the spirit of Winston Churchill, that only those of European extraction count, is still stalking that part of the world. Ironically, in the process of seeking to fulfill the long-cherished dream of multiple US Presidents of seeing another meltdown of Russia in the way the USSR collapsed in 1991, NATO has ensured that an increasing number of Russians no longer consider themselves to be European but as a unique subset of humanity that is linked to both Europe as well as Asia. If only US Presidents understood that their country has been and will remain quadri-continental, that America is not just European but African, South American and Asian as well, the world would be a much better place than it now is. The war in Ukraine and the sanctions regime accompanying it have caused snarls in logistics chains, inflation and shortage of essential items that are resulting in even greater hardship and poverty to the Global South than was the case earlier. In the G20 meetings taking place in India, thus far there has not been an agreed statement at either the meeting of the Foreign Ministers or the Finance Ministers, because to the G7, grandstanding on the issue of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine trumps any effort at solving problems such as global warming or a financial safety net for the poorer countries of the world, issues that have repeatedly been flagged by Prime Minister Modi and External Affairs Minister Jaishankar. It is clear that while they can expend hundreds of billions of dollars on Ukraine in various ways, even coming up with a billion dollars for helping the poorest countries is too big an ask.
Could there be a glimmer of hope that common sense would prevail in the fevered atmosphere gripping both sides of the North Atlantic? In the previous century, such passions led to two world wars, and may yet lead to a third in next to no time. Sparks are falling all over, and any one may set alight the abundant reserves of tinder now on display. External Affairs Minister showed statesmanship when he met his Chinese counterpart despite the transgressions of the PLA. By his meeting with Lavrov in Delhi, even for a short while, Blinken offers hope that the Ukraine war may not end in World War III.
MDN