New Delhi:The energy crisis triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the Middle East conflict has also brought out the contrasting styles in which India and China deal with their neighbours in an hour of need.
When China offers energy, as it did with Taiwan, the offer arrives bundled with a political price tag attached to it. When India supplies fuel to Nepal or Sri Lanka, it does so through existing intergovernmental frameworks, with no conditions on sovereignty or political alignment, according to an article in Daily Mirror Online.
The article highlights that China’s response to the crisis was swift and self-serving.
China ordered a suspension of new fuel export contracts and attempted to cancel existing shipments as global fuel markets tightened due to the Middle Eastern war. As a result countries such as Australia, Bangladesh and the Philippines that had come to depend on fuel imports from China were left in the lurch.
With large crude stockpiles and an extensive renewable energy sector, China is better positioned to weather the energy crisis than its Asian neighbours. But Beijing calculated that allowing scarcity to spread across the region served its interests better than relieving it, the article said.
It points out that China took advantage of the situation to arm-twist its neighbours and tried to drive hard political bargains. It offered to supply oil to Taiwan if the island nation agreed to peaceful reunification, with mainland China. However, Taiwan rejected the proposal straightaway.
The article highlights that India’s behaviour under the same circumstances was markedly different.
Rather than pulling back, India supplied around 38,000 metric tonnes of fuel to Sri Lanka, addressing a significant portion of its immediate requirement.
Fuel deliveries to Nepal and Bhutan, both of which are entirely dependent on India, continued without interruption.
Similarly, additional diesel shipments were delivered to Bangladesh, with more supplies assured through the cross-border pipeline route.
“These were not isolated gestures made for political optics. They reflected a consistent pattern of supply rooted in India’s broader “Neighbourhood First” doctrine, which was now being tested under genuine crisis conditions,” the article noted.
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