“Friends” in Realpolitik: How India Keeps Its Alliances Transactional

This piece is written to help readers develop a worldview, independent of this article, to view Indian relationships in the international community. One thing you would notice in the title is a contradiction — “friends” in “realpolitik.” But isn’t realpolitik about not having friends, and being totally transactional to ensure a nation’s interests? How is India supposed to have friends while it indulges in openly transactional foreign policy? I will try my level best to explain my analytical logic for this, which might help others do the same.

When I say friends of India, I think all readers have only one name in mind — Russia (and formerly the USSR). This is such a commonly explored topic that even people not particularly interested in geopolitics are aware of this close-bound friendship. That is why I will explore two other “friendships” later; but before that, let me resolve some commonly held doubts about our relationship with Russia.

First and foremost: a doubt exists in people’s minds as to why Russia did not support India during Op Sindoor. Why did Russia ask India to cease hostilities and return to the negotiating table when India had clearly expressed no intention of doing so? Is this how a friend acts? The answer lies in the fact that what a nation says is not exactly what it wants. Remember, India has been one of the leading voices asking for cessation of the conflict in Ukraine. Why is that? Ukraine has been a leading arms supplier to Pakistan — it is not in India’s interest to have Ukraine keep up this military partnership, so why does India ask for the violence to stop? The answer is pretenses. A nation is supposed to keep up pretenses, because you can’t show your motives out in the open. I could refer you all to Augustus Caesar and how he became the “First Citizen.” He concealed his ambition — the very thing that got his predecessor Julius assassinated — and always maintained a façade of a republican. In the end, it was the Roman Republic itself that granted him his goal of becoming Emperor (the First Citizen, rather).

Remember, no single reason is a good enough parameter to define such a multi-modal system, so pretenses are one of the reasons but not the only one. Why India does this, and what it has to gain (or has already gained) from this conflict, is entirely a different matter and not really relevant to this piece.

Now, let us get into the reveal of the two “friends” mentioned earlier. This is so easily decrypted that any student of international relations already knows the two names I am about to take: France and Israel. Let us set aside the military relationships for now, because they are quite obvious — what I want readers to understand is how these nations have found this niche of transactional relations, which is win-win for both them and us.

I assume this article is already quite lengthy for our publication, so I shall reserve the reasons for naming these two countries for our next issue. Thank you for your time, and see you around.