Pieces and Pawns in the American “Chessboard”.
In this March, at the meeting of the AUKUS block leaders, the leaders of the USA, UK and Australia in their joint statement declared the plan for the further development of the alliance within the framework of which three American NPS, Virginia type, nuclear-powered, will be sold to Canberra. This may become the first case in history when a non-nuclear state will reinforce its fleet with submarines of this type, thereby creating an international precedent.
Before this, such submarines have been in service only with five members of the so-called nuclear club: the USA, Russia, UK, France and China. And, of course, India also has three NPS and another one under construction. It is true that, apart from the place of manufacture, one should say that there is very little of Indian there, and – to put it mildly – the Indian Arihant submarines, as far as their level is concerned, fall short of the samples that they plan to deliver to Australia.
In this connection, according to some sources, the decision taken by AUKUS led to India’s increasing interest in acquiring similar NPS able to carry missiles with nuclear filling. The Indian diplomats, in the course of contacts with their American colleagues began to actively bring up the idea of the importance for New Delhi to obtain the same opportunities that Canberra had obtained.
The Indians justly believe that India, having, along with Australia, strategic partnership with the USA, is not in any aspect inferior to Canberra in terms of importance, significance, reliability, level in the global arena and global standing, and, consequently, has the right to expect a similar gift from the USA.
However the Indian government again failed to take into consideration that in the White House they consider only themselves “the players at the chessboard”, while all others are mere pawns and pieces of various weight, placed on this very chessboard in the order needed by the Americans. And while Australia (like other Ango-Saxons) is quite a piece, India – from all appearances – is regarded by the USA as a pawn that may be sacrificed whenever needed. And, indeed, how India, a colony country, may be in the eyes of Washington equal to a country that is a representative of colonialists and, what is even more, a participant of the Five Eyes alliance.
India will not have any American submarines, in fact it will not have many other things. And, in some military experts’ opinion, there are a number of reasons therefor.
First, in the USA, they understand very well that the Australian “submarine” project creates a precedent for appearance of new nuclear state, that in itself causing concerns with the global community.
Second, the USA may allow only to representatives of these very Anglo-Saxons to nominally have nuclear weapons. A striking evidence thereof are the draft bills introduced in the Congress, aimed at facilitation of the international rules of trading in weapons for Washington, bearing the self-explanatory names of KOALA 4716 and BRITS 4716. It is planned to make the exceptions only for Great Britain and Australia.
Third, those countries who are unwilling to be under the American control, such as, for example, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and India, should develop an interest to avail themselves of such an “exception”. This will become a sort of a long-playing “carrot” and a sufficiently powerful leverage.
The recent incident with the killing of the Sikh separatist in Canada is quite demonstrative. The Indian Prime Minister N.Modi has quite recently returned from the USA where the Americans had been assuring him of eternal friendship and partnership, and after some time they themselves initiated the India-Canada scandal by handing over some materials to Ottawa in the support of the Five Eyes.
One should not forget that India’s role in the context of the global American strategy is to be the key American tool in the USA – China confrontation, allowing Washington to play their own game “without soiling their hands”.
Fernando Gaillardo, political observer, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.