Putin's push for a strategic triangle

[CHIMO]

MOSCOW - Russia is again calling for a Moscow-New Delhi-Beijing axis, an alliance of three nuclear-armed countries of some 2.5 billion people that theoretically would be able to balance US power in coming years.

Cooperation among Russia, India and China "would make a great contribution to global security", Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in New Delhi. The Kremlin leader, on a visit to India over the weekend, accused the West of pursuing a dictatorial foreign policy and setting double standards on terrorism. A unipolar world could entail dangerous trends globally, Putin said, adding that unilateralism increased risks that weapons of mass destruction might fall into the hands of terrorists.

Putin refrained from naming the unilateral power in question, but it is widely assumed he was referring to the United States when he lashed out at "unipolar world" policies. Putin and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh issued a joint call for "multipolar world" and a greater role for the United Nations. The Russian leader also backed India's bid for a permanent United Nations Security Council seat.

As the international situation is undergoing a major shift, Moscow may feel a necessity for some "asymmetric" moves to offset its own weaknesses. If Russian policies in Ukraine fail, the Kremlin's response could be the acceleration of alliances with India and China, or at least the acceleration of axis talk. However, "strategic triangle" talk failed to impress the West in the past, and axis rhetoric is even less likely to have an impact now.


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