India Narrative

  In the two decades since India and Russia declared a new strategic partnership, the global geopolitical landscape has undergone major transformations. While the partnership retains a strong strategic content, its course has inevitably been impacted by shifting equations between major global powers. This aspect is likely to figure prominently on the dialogue agenda of President Putin and Prime Minister Modi on December 6 . Over these two decades, India-US political and economic relations surged and, after the India-US nuclear deal of 2008, defence and technology cooperation took off as well. Among the US motivations to strengthen partnership with India was that a strong, democratic India could be a useful partner for the US in Asia, where China was emerging as a formidable rival. India welcomed this premise, as well as the opportunity to diversify military acquisitions from near-exclusive dependence on Russia. Russia-US relations were already somewhat strained in the early 2000s, but

  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 acce