Dr Aniruddha Babar
Dept. of Political Science,
Tetso College
India is the largest importer of Venezuelan oil surpassing China for which it pays cash. In 2017-18,India imported 11.5 million tonnes of oil from Venezuela, which is its fourth biggest source. Venezuelan Oil Minister Manuel Quevedo visited New Delhi last month hoping to persuade New Delhi to double its oil imports from his country.
Venezuela is the third largest supplier of crude oil to India after Saudi Arabia and Iran the reason for this is the long distance between the two countries. The Indian companies are cooperating with the President Nicolas Maduro regime on various economic fronts like mining and Hospitality sectors. The traditional bilateral relations that India has been enjoying with Venezuela have benefitted both the countries not only on Economics fronts but also on diplomatic fronts as well as various International platforms.
During President Chávez's visit to India in March 2005, the two countries signed a bilateral agreement on co-operation in the hydrocarbon sector and an MoU grantingONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) rights for oil and gas exploration in Venezuela. OVL subsequently opened an office in Venezuela. In April 2008, OVLand PDVSA established a joint venture called “Petrolera IndoVenezolana SA” for exploration and production oil in the San Cristóbal field. OVL has a 40% stake in the company and the remaining 60% is held by PDVSA.
Venezuela has been a trusted ally of India since last many years; however, the trust and relationship that has been developed between two nations over the period of time has been threatened by the latest ‘demand’ of US to India that it must stop buying oil from ‘Dictatorial’ government of Venezuela.
With the ‘Trump-Maduro’ conflict, the American narrative of ‘Democracy’ has once again started finding its place in the headlines of the media all over the world. The pressure on India comes as the United States and its regional allies, who back Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, threaten more sanctions to cut off revenue streams to Maduro's government and force him to step down in the interest of so called ‘democracy’ and the ‘people’ of Venezuela. Lawmakers from both major U.S. parties are also pressuring India. Republican Senator Marco Rubio tweeted on February 13 that Indian refiner Reliance Petroleum’s purchases of Venezuelan oil would undermine Guaido’s “legitimate government” and “lead to calls for secondary sanctions on Reliance.” Albio Sires, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives’ subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, wrote to India’s ambassador in Washington on February 12 expressing concern about what Sires called Venezuela’s “attempts to work around U.S. efforts to hold Maduro accountable and approach one of our strongest partners in the process.” It is now clear that Washington views Guaido as Venezuela's legitimate leader and has imposed sanctions on the country's oil sector and announced asset freezes and travel bans targeting top government officials to create pressure on the Maduro regime.On the other hand, at the same time India has also been facing pressure from US to stop buying oil from Iran to put the country under ‘economic sanctions’. The series of events happened in the past few days raises serious concerns over the sovereignty of India to formulate its own foreign policies without the interference from the so called “Defender of Global Justice”- The USA which ultimately leads us to a multimillion dollar question- ARE WE TRULY SOVERIGN?
The habit of US leadership to interfere in the business of others has been exhibited in its international policy since Vietnam War. America had problems with Vietnamese, Cuban, Iranian, Iraqi, Libyan, Bolivian, Venezuelan leaderships because they apparently were contradicting the ‘supremacy’ and self-declared leadership that USA wanted to impose on the world at large in the name of Global ‘Peace, Justice, Prosperity and World Order’. American idea of Democracy has always had an underlying self-interest and therefore, it may not be wrong to say that the puppet governments / regimes established and supported by USA religiously performing their roles giving absolute leverage to its foreign policy in the international affairs.
Meanwhile, Nicolas Maduro’s staunchest international partner and supporter-Russia- reiteratedits absolute support to Maduro and the Venezuela government and Maduro’s efforts to prevent what Moscow sees as interference in Venezuela’s domestic affairs. At the same time, Russia, which is committed to defend its oil assets in Venezuela, sees threats to its major investments it made in Venezuela and pledges to react “in the toughest way” possible within international law if those investments are threatened by any means, Russia’s Ambassador to Venezuela, Vladimir Zaemsky, told Russian government-run newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta in an interview published this week. This interview gives clear indications as to the intentions and approach of Russia in connection with the latest developments pertaining to the Venezuela.
US policy towards Venezuela over the past two decades can be understood by recognising its multiple goals. Washington’s envisaged expectation is nothing less than the establishment of a client-regime in Caracas. This explains the Trump administration’s choice of Guaido as a tool, puppet, agent, as someone with no independent political existence, who can be trusted to obey Washington’s dictates without questioning its legality or morality. However, failing that, the US government has been determined to, at least, prevent the emergence of a viable alternative to the neoliberal economic order, even if this involves large-scale destruction in Venezuela; towards which most probably the current US threat of second class sanctions might lead it to.As Noam Chomsky quoted, US objectives in Vietnam were similar. There, although it failed to establish its regime of choice, it succeeded in stopping the “virus of independent development” by destroying large parts of the country.
The Indian government’s response to the Venezuelan crisis has been disheartening. Although it has not recognised Guaido, it has failed to reaffirm the principles of sovereignty and non-interference (which are fundamental objectives of India’s foreign policy) ‘openly’ at global level against the ‘adventures’ of USA to interfere in the domestic affairs of other sovereign nation.The India’s silence about the latest developments that yet again openly challenged the sovereignty of an independent nation might cause it to lose yet another friend and ally in coming years however, this might not affect India much since these days the international movements of Delhi, like many other countries, also has been operated from the Washington, considering this fact, India has no other option but to support US against Venezuela. Also, the Venezuela card might come handy for India to corner Pakistan on international platform with the support from US and its trusted allies.
The undercurrents of a Foreign Policy of US have brought chaos in number of countries in the world. Be it South East Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East or Africa, Yankees have successfully played their games everywhere. Countries like Former USSR, present day Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Libya (during Gaddafi’s rule), Iraq (during the rule of President Saddam Hussein) etc. have successfully defended the imperial challenge of the ‘Great American Dream’ however, the wave of neo-imperialism that has started from Washington has been causing so far uninterrupted disturbance and destruction in the world. The ‘international approach’ of US has compelled the world to rethink about the definition of ‘Sovereignty’ and therefore, the open threat of US to the sovereignty of Venezuela has become a matter of concern for all those countries and individuals who believe and cherish the ideals of universal brotherhood, natural justice and democracy.
