India as a democratic superpower

The country is more than capable of offering the kind of leadership that the globe requires on a regular basis.

I couldn't imagine flying over almost a billion Indians without pausing to study and offer my thanks. Even back then, knowing as much as I did about India's constitution and political system, it was clear to me that a democratic, free India would be one of the world's top nations.

With the world's third-largest economy, at least in purchasing power terms, a vibrant free population eager to learn and innovate, a gloriously rumbustious press, and an honest judiciary; with a government rapidly closing the infrastructure deficit; and an openness to the rest of the world, symbolized by a vast diaspora including 7,00,000 Indian-born Australians, India is no longer the emerging democratic superpower that I frequently referenced.

India has grown into a democratic superpower capable of giving the kind of leadership that the world requires but that America cannot always provide. These frightening times, which would have appeared unthinkable just a few years ago, when history was purportedly coming to an end, are preventing India from taking a stand in support of free countries and people. Make no mistake: this newly minted "no limits" cooperation, this new Beijing-Moscow axis, these dictators on the march, unless they are discouraged or somehow influenced for the better, will bring an end to what has been the best periods in human history.

National annihilation war

Nothing Ukraine has done has triggered Russia's most recent war. Russia's ruler is opposed to Ukraine's existence as a free and independent country. It's a fight for national elimination to which no free country can remain oblivious. I know this because Vladimir Putin told him once when he verbally shirtfronted him after a Russian missile battery shot down MH17 in 2014, killing 38 Australians among 289 victims, that Ukrainians were really Russians, and that Ukraine had no right to exist as an independent country, as he did even then, in the first phase of this invasion.

He wants to restore Greater Russia to right what he sees as the greatest geopolitical disaster of the last century. That is his ideal, and it means that once Ukraine is pulverized into submission, war crime by war crime, atrocity by atrocity, in a conflict his pride will not allow him to lose and his ministers are too brainwashed or frightened to stop, the Baltic states and Poland will be next in line.

And don't think China isn't paying attention, nursing its own grievances over its "century of humiliation," determined to reclaim Taiwan and prove that China is once again the Middle Kingdom, the world's top country, around which all others must cluster, tremble, and submit. Because of the 14 demands made of us publicly in late 2020, Australia knows what a world governed by China would look like: accept all Chinese investments, Chinese students, discontinue any criticism of China, and end our partnership with the US.

As a member of the Quad, Australia joins India in opposing the Chinese invasion along the Ladakh Line of Control. That's what Australia has always done: stood with the victims of aggression, from Belgium during WWI to Poland during WWII, to the people of East Timor when they sought independence, to the people of Iraq against Islamic State during my time as Prime Minister, and now Ukraine, where Australia was the first country to dismantle heavily armored vehicles.

As a strategy, trade Russia's aggression on Ukraine has resulted in

led commodity prices to skyrocket and critical supply routes to be disrupted, both for food and energy. Everything bends to the state's power when these dictators are bent on national glory, and trade is merely a technique that can be switched on and off like a tap. As governments reconsider who can be relied on, the globe will almost unavoidably become more disruptive.

When India withdrew from the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership deal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi realized this. These are perilous times, requiring a rethink of the China-cantered globalization of the previous two decades - not in the face of a globe that was, until recently, freer, safer, and prosperous than ever before.

Businesses in nations like mine have a patriotic duty not to be dependent on a country that could threaten us as long as China maintains cruel and hegemonic intentions. But it's also a chance for India, a reliable trade partner, to take the place of China in supply chains needing large-scale, high-quality manufacturing.

Piyush Goyal, India's trade minister, was correct when he claimed the new Australia-India trade deal's ambition to quadruple trade within a decade was too low. Why shouldn't Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Make in India" initiative include all consumer items and intermediate goods that are currently manufactured in China?

India's international standing Especially now that it is becoming evident that commerce can only be free and fair if it is founded on the ideals that most democracies share. For obvious reasons, independent India kept the West at arm's length at times. But, after 75 years of exemplary behavior and the establishment of its democracy, there is no basis for mutual suspicion or for India to be anyone's junior partner. India is expected to be the leader of the free world in the next 50 years.

India, as a country that achieved its independence most honorably via moral suasion and peaceful protest, or satyagraha, would understand the love and passion that is driving millions of Ukrainians to risk everything they hold dear for the most prized possession of all, freedom.

If there's one country whose established affinity with Russia, historic aloofness from power struggles, and palpable friendliness toward everybody might just get through to the Kremlin and the regular Russians whose lives are also being ruined by this war, it's India.

If the Russian leader still has a conscience, India is in a unique position to appeal to it, should it try to rouse the better angels of Russia's nature to a fresh beginning, so that what is currently being taken down despite this may yet be rebuilt.

In the spirit of goodwill and generosity Why not use India's moral leadership, which it may possess more than any other country, to persuade Russia to relinquish the area it has seized? Untold more bloodshed could be avoided if Russia listens.

Even if unheeded, India's reputation in the world would be enhanced by being the great power most willing to put principle before calculation.