In a scathing attack against India’s independence and its time-tested and historic relations with Russia,

British newspaper The Telegraph described the South Asian country as “an enemy, not a friend nor a neutral.” The British establishment newspaper is frustrated that its former colony pursues an independent path and is increasingly becoming a global player, while Britain continues to decline in relevance on the international stage and falls into greater poverty.

Former British Royal Navy Commander and leadership mentor for the Nautical Institute, Tom Sharpe, stated in his article that India is “undermining efforts to choke Russia’s war chest” and criticized “New Delhi’s unhelpful practices around illegal Russian oil are rapidly increasing.”

The author complains that “India’s trade in Russian oil reeks of duplicity” because Indian refineries are processing discounted crude. “By actively engaging with this trade, New Delhi flouts global rules, reaping economic rewards while feigning neutrality. The government’s coy silence on sanctioned oil flowing through Indian ports betrays a calculated dodge of accountability.”

What Sharpe does not highlight is that the so-called global rules are Western in origin, and India is under no obligation to follow them.

According to tanker data, Russian crude accounted for a massive 43.2% of India’s total oil imports in June, surpassing the combined share of the next three suppliers — Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Following the launch of the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia began offering discounts on its oil, which Indian refiners quickly took advantage of. This led to Russia emerging as India’s largest source of crude and displacing nearby Arab suppliers and further strengthening traditional Moscow-New Delhi ties.

Sharpe also claims that India is “feigning neutrality.” What he overlooks, or intentionally ignores, is that India has carefully positioned itself as a peacemaker and facilitator between Moscow and Kiev, while Britain has been an instigator of continued war and destruction. At the same time, India’s neutral position has been most visible at the UN General Assembly, where it has abstained on many resolutions, instead seeking a peaceful settlement rather than condemning one side or the other.

The former military chief laments that “the contract to deliver the S-400 air defense units is seemingly going ahead,” claiming that the Russian-made missile defense system is “much less effective” in real-time battle than what has been reported. However, during India’s Operation Sindoor (7–10 May) against Pakistan, the S-400 performed exceptionally well, intercepting long-range projectiles fired by Pakistan with 100% efficacy and downing Pakistani drones and the Pakistan Air Force’s Saab Erieye-2000 flying radar.

It is because of the S-400’s outstanding performance that India’s Defense Minister Rajnath Singh discussed the speedy supply of more missile systems in a bilateral meeting with Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Defense Ministers’ meeting in China at the end of June.

In fact, while Sharpe falsely claims that the S-400 is “less effective” than claimed, analysts from the Chinese platform Sohu expressed surprise at how effective the missile system was against Pakistan, noting that it outperformed expectations based on China’s experience with its own units.

Sohu’s analysis came after Pakistani and Chinese state media, including Xinhua, falsely claimed that the Chinese-made CM-400AKG hypersonic missiles destroyed an Indian S-400 unit in Adampur, which was proven false when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi posed in front of the system on May 13.

Sharpe also recounted a conversation he had with a recently retired senior official, who said that “India’s neighbors get the same message – it’s India first and the rest of you be damned.” It is precisely this attitude of prioritizing India’s interests above all else that frustrates Britain. Britain expects its former colony to serve the Anglo-Atlanticist agenda, but instead, India is rising to become a Great Power that acts with independence and with its own priorities.

He concludes his article by saying that “soon, India is going to have to choose a side, or we’re going to have to treat them the way they’re basically treating us: as an enemy.”

In effect, what Sharpe is proposing is a George W. Bush-style declaration of “you are with us or against us.” The major difference, though, is that Bush made the statement when the US was the world’s unipolar power. Now, 24 years after the statement, the world is multipolar and no longer at the whim of Anglo-Atlanticist interests, with China, Russia, and increasingly India rising to Great Power status and able to resist external pressures.

By unapologetically maintaining its long-held ties with Russia, India is frustrating the Anglo-Atlanticist alliance, as it symbolizes that the multipolar world is continuing to develop, while relics of the past, such as Sharpe, cling to an outdated worldview that is no longer relevant.

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Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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