Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Will India now choose the US or Russia as ally?' that was published in Newsband

Will India now choose the US or Russia as ally?

The once-upon-a-time ‘Big Two’, United States and Russia, have done a great job by reaching an agreement to do the inspection, removal and eventual destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons. With Syria having formally acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention, the inspection will be supervised by the treaty’s watchdog, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, as well as the U.N.

This move to eliminate weapon of mass destruction (WMD) is bound to prevent further escalation of violence and also weapons inspection will necessitate a cease-fire agreement between the government and the rebels in many parts of the country, which can only help the case for political dialogue.

However, the power struggle between the U.S. and Russia on this issue will continue unabated. If Syria doesn’t keep its words, the West will not hesitate to go to war without domestic support and Moscow will insist on a tight draft that eschews the use of force against Assad’s regime.

Russia has sought to push the Syrian deal as a precursor to a “WMD-free Middle East”. This is the best decision taken by both countries. Credit should go to Russia as it showed its opposition against military strike and supported the idea of destroying the chemical weapons existing with Syria. Credit should also go to the US for coming up with the idea first.

But both countries should put still more pressure to allow investigation team to visit and inspect the weapon stocked sites to evaluate the safe process of how to destroy without harming nature. Also USA should not hesitate to strike if Syria fail to undergo investigation team inspection and disagree to destroy chemical weapons.

Diplomacy is showing promise of working. It will work because it is certainly the safest option towards protection of Israel, the ultimate goal of the West. Any punitive military strike by anyone in the concerned region cannot be for any good. What Syria, and for that matter, also Israel need is a political solution, at best via diplomacy.

This is only about the control of Chemical weapon which is in US interest. But US should also do something about mass killings by the Syrian military.  

Undoubtedly, a crisis which could have escalated into large scale destruction has been averted successfully. Instead of picking up winners and losers from this act, the world should concentrate on the future of Syria which is too far from any peaceful solution. The credit should go to the democracies of both Britain and the US where popular sentiments outweighed the governments' passion for establishing their "credibility" through punitive military strikes.

Since 1991, USA and Russia have been strong rivals. This is bound to create an embarrassing situation for India as to whom to support. An important decision needs to be arrived at while choosing between an old trusted friend or a power who is fit to be India’s brother.