Following on "De-Dollarization Incoming: "India Exploring Rupee Payment Mechanism For Trade With Russia"" it really appears the U.S. State Department and intelligence community are hellbent on forming a trans-Eurasian trade and finance regime that will start with half the world's population and only grow from there.
This has to be deliberate.
From The Diplomat, March 21:
While differences between the U.S. and India have widened, Beijing and New Delhi have made similar statements on the Ukraine conflict.
In a landmark development last week, Beijing proposed a visit to New Delhi by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi toward the end of this month. Wang will be on a pan-South Asian tour and China has reportedly asked India if it would host him.
India has so far been non-committal on the proposal and the short notice may well scuttle the visit. But Beijing’s decision to propose such a visit — the first in the aftermath of the 2020 Galwan clashes between India and China — is significant all the same.
For several weeks now, China has had an opportunity to reach out to India in the midst of a growing gap between Washington and New Delhi. That gap has only become wider with the conflict in Ukraine, where India and China have made similar comments, combining a quiet discomfort over Russia’s unilateral invasion with an extant and growing skepticism of the West.
At Quad meetings, India has repeatedly broken line with Japan, Australia and the U.S. and held back the coalition from denouncing Russia for its invasion. More recently, India has begun publicly courting cheap Russian oil, which is looking for new buyers amidst the standoff with Western Europe. So far, in March, India has imported nearly four times as much Russian oil as it did each month last year....
....MUCH MORE
As one Indian friend wrote to me last year: "What have the Romans Americans ever done for us?"
He was only half-joking.
Meanwhile India's $5.4 billion purchase of Russia's S-400 air defense system looks to be going through and the U.S. is threatening sanctions on India. (Politico March 20)
