Kaja Kallas, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, along with Western policy “experts,” are accusing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “crossing a red line” for sending a handful of Indian troops to participate in the Russian-Belarusian joint strategic Zapad 2025 military exercise that took place over Sept. 12-16.
The exercise involved up to 100,000 soldiers and personnel, according to published Russian sources; the Indian Defense Ministry dispatched 65 Indian troops, who were stationed in the Mulino District training ground about 40 miles west of Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, well away from NATO’s borders, and participated in exercises with Russian troops, the Times of India reported Sept. 15.
EU Foreign Policy chief Kallas, a virulent Russophobe, bellowed on Sept. 17 that India’s participation in the Zapad 2025 exercise, “is a great concern. If you want closer ties with us [the European Union], then why participate in exercises that are existential threats to us? So, to be very clear on this message. We are not taking this lightly.”
David Merkel, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs in the Obama Administration, warned that “India’s participation in the Zapad exercise, following the drone incursions in Poland and chilling relations between Washington and New Delhi, raises concerns about the future extent of the U.S.-India security relationship.”
Ulrich Speck, a foreign policy analyst in Germany, threatened that India had “crossed a red line.”
The disproportionate attack on India’s minor participation arises from the fact that the West has warned India to break from Russia, which India has refused to do. But even more to the point, is that Modi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization heads of state summit on Sept. 1 in Tianjin, China. These three leaders are directing the Global Majority in assembling a new development and security architecture, that is superseding the order of the bankrupt Western financial system. The more the West attacks Modi, the more that process moves forward.
