Putin In India – inaugurating a new stage in a time-tested relationship

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India on December 6 represents a huge upturn in the India-Russia relations. This will be the first international bilateral visit by Putin since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic about two years ago. The fact that Putin’s first stand-alone visit is to India is reaffirmation of the underlying strength and resilience of the India-Russia relationship, notwithstanding the rapid flux in geo-politics in the region. 

Putin’s earlier visit outside Russia was in June this year to Geneva for a summit with President Joe Biden. That was, however, an interaction in a third country and not a bilateral visit to another country. Putin’s visit can also be seen as his way of signalling that although Russia’s relations with China are vital and critical, particularly because of Russia’s heavy dependence on China for export of its oil, gas and defence equipment as also because of the stringent sanctions imposed on it by the West as a result of Crimea’s accession to/annexation by Russia in 2014, its ties with India are no less decisive or significant.

The fact that Putin is undertaking this visit in spite of the high incidence of coronavirus cases in Russia (around 35,000 daily cases with 1,200 deaths) and notwithstanding the looming threat of confrontation on the Ukraine border, is illustrative of the strategic value that Putin attaches to relations with India. He is convinced of the imperative need to nurture and strengthen them in spite of the worsening relations between India and China over the last 18 months.