India has a series of exciting news in the last month of the year. First of all, India's self-developed destroyer "Imphal" officially joined the Indian Navy and took six and a half years to build, showing the unique charm of India's military industry. However, the "Imphal" is not only striking during its construction, but also has three distinguishing features. First of all, it is designed and built by India itself, highlighting the achievements of Modi's "Make in India" initiative. Secondly, its displacement is about 7,400 tons, which is comparable to China's 052D destroyer, which means that it can carry the "BrahMos" missile jointly developed by Russia and India, with a range of up to 450 kilometers, adding confidence to India in the confrontation with other naval powers. Finally, it is a ** destroyer, making India one of the very few countries capable of independently building medium and large ** destroyers. It can be seen from this that from the point of view of construction, India is already in a leading position in the world, even stronger than Russia. In addition to the commissioning of the "Imphal", Russia then publicly supported India as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Although this is not the first time that Russia has supported India's accession to the permanent state, what is special about this time is that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made a public statement after his talks with Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, indicating that the talks between the two countries have achieved good results. According to the information disclosed by **, India has met at least three demands of Russia, including India's commitment to connect the international north-south transport corridor with various forms of transportation, and the creation of a sea route from the southeast corner of India to the Russian Far East. The North-South Transport Corridor is one of Russia's key international projects, and if South Asia and the Gulf states choose to export goods to Europe through this corridor, it will be able to cut the journey in half, allowing Russia to collect tolls from this essential place and use its geopolitical advantages in exchange for other benefits. At the same time, the sea route for the export of oil from India to the Russian Far East will also have a positive impact on Russia. In addition, the two sides also reached an intention on military cooperation, and India, as Russia's main importer, will buy an additional piece of goods for Russia. During the talks between Jaishankar and Lavrov, the two sides discussed the joint production of equipment, especially advanced modern equipment, which met Russia's demand for "earning foreign exchange".
In addition, India pledged to continue to strengthen energy cooperation with Russia, with more than 50% of Russia's long-term export earnings coming from energy earnings. In addition, before the Russia-Ukraine conflict, India rarely imported from Russia**, but after the conflict, India chose to "take over" and became one of the important markets for Russian oil exports. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak recently said that Russia has successfully circumvented Western oil sanctions precisely because it is able to export large quantities to China and India. Obviously, with the continued commitment to Russian-Indian energy cooperation, Russia does not have to worry about revenue, which is why Lavrov openly supports India's accession to the permanent membership. According to a joke circulating on the Internet in China, whenever India seeks to join the UN Security Council, one country in China, the United States, Russia, Britain and France will always stand up against it. Considering that Russia has already expressed its support, if a vote does take place, then which country will be against it?Some analysts believe that China and the United States are the most likely. The first is China, where there are deep divisions between China and India, and India has been cracking down on Chinese companies in recent days, so it would not be surprising if China voted against it.
On the one hand, Japan and Germany are core allies of the United States, and even if the United States supports other countries to join the permanent membership of the Security Council, these two countries should be at the front, not India. On the other hand, India's accession to the permanent membership of the UN Security Council involves a redivision of international discourse power, which will affect US interests in the South Asian-Indian Ocean region, so it is not surprising that the United States will not easily cede power, and it is not surprising that it opposes India. Thus, it can be seen that India's path to permanent membership is not destined to be easy.