"Value of defence imports from Russia was demonstrated during Operation Sindoor" -- Congress MP, Shashi Tharoor :::: Moscow-based expert says - “Russia is no longer anxious about the risks of political isolation"

Putin says India-Russia cooperation is not aimed against anyone, including US

Has the “no-limits partnership” between Moscow and Beijing has rattled India ?

On Russian President Vladimir Putin’s India visit, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said:

"It's hugely significant. It is a crucial relationship, and has been for a long time. In today's rather turbulent world, where so many relationships have become uncertain, it becomes important to shore up the ones we have. 

No one should misunderstand that this will affect our relationships with other countries, because India has the capacity to have independent relationships with different governments. 

"We are a nation that has always believed in sovereign autonomy. Our autonomy to decide our friendships, our partnerships and our national interests is encoded in our DNA. The value of Russian friendship has been proven in recent years, particularly in two domains. 

"We've had a lot of oil and gas from Russia in recent years, and the value of defence imports from Russia was demonstrated once again during Operation Sindoor when the S-400 protected us from a number of Pakistani missiles that were targeting our cities, including Delhi... ". 

"If agreements come through during this meeting, that's part of strengthening a vital relationship, which in my mind, does not come at the expense of relations with America or China...", he said.

“Russia is no longer anxious about the risks of political isolation.”

Petr Topychkanov, Moscow-based senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said that for Russia, “the importance of this visit lies primarily in the fact that it is happening at all”.

“It will signal that Russia is returning to something resembling normal international relations,” said Topychkanov.   

India’s relationship with Russia goes back to the cold war and has remained deeply entrenched since then, with Russia remaining India’s biggest defence supplier. It is an alliance that was long-tolerated by western governments, even after Putin’s actions in Ukraine, but Trump’s return to the White House has signalled a markedly different approach.

Over the past three years, the US and Europe turned a blind eye as India became one of the largest buyers of cheap Russian oil, despite sanctions in the west. 

But after the US president’s peacemaking efforts in Ukraine failed earlier this year, Trump began to accuse India of bankrolling Russia’s invasion. 

He publicly put pressure on Delhi to halt its Russian oil purchases, which culminated in a punishing additional 25% punitive US tariff on Indian imports.

For India, thus there are even greater stakes at play. 

As Aparna Pande, director of the India and south Asia initiative at the Hudson Institute, put it, Delhi is currently grappling with its most unfavourable geopolitical climate in years, thanks to “a semi-isolationist America, a weaker Russia and a very powerful China”.  (The Guardian) 

In a notable sign of the tightrope India has to walk, on the eve of Putin’s arrival a joint opinion piece by the French ambassador, German high commissioner and UK high commissioner to India was published in the Times of India, titled “Russia doesn’t seem serious about peace”.

It prompted a stinging response from India’s foreign ministry, which said it was “not an acceptable diplomatic practice to give public advice on India’s relations with a third country”.

India has returned to its default mode of “hedging” in its unorthodox alliances, write two experts for 'The Guardian' (London) - 

Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Pjotr Sauer.

India has thus signaled to the US it has multiple options and waiting to see where everything will fall.

The last meeting between Putin and Modi was just three months ago, alongside Chinese premier Xi Jinping, where the three leaders were pictured holding hands and sharing jokes – optics that prompted fury from Trump.

Yet India has other pressing priorities in its engagement with Russia, namely the vast superpower that sits along its febrile north and north-eastern border. “From the Indian side – for all the talk of Russian being a great and loyal friend – the real reason that relationship is important is geography,” said Pande.

But,  China remains the greatest threat to India for the foreseeable future and since the Soviet Union, India has always relied on Russia as a continental balancer against China.

The increasingly close, “no-limits partnership” between Moscow and Beijing has rattled India, said Pande, and left them hoping to find a way to “prevent Russia from ever getting too close to China and ensure it can count on Moscow to put some pressure on the Chinese”.

It has also prompted India to try to move away from its dependence on Russia, particularly on defence. 

For decades, about 70% of Indian defence purchases came from Russia but in the past four years, this has reduced to less than 40%.

The sale of weapons and planes – in particular Russian S-400 air defence systems and the Sukhoi Su-57 fighter aircraft – will probably be a key component of Modi and Putin’s talks.

India will also try to strike a balance; 

-- keep purchasing enough Russia weapons to retain the alliance, 

but 

not be so dependent that if Russia suddenly cut off supplies under China’s pressure. 

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