Sanjay Kumar
The visit was meant to be a message and it served its purpose. The Russian president Vladimir Putin came to India to attend the 23rd India Russia annual summit , a regular event in the calendar of both the countries since 2000 but this time the visit and the context were different.
For both the host and the guest the summit was not only meant to send the message of bilateral camaraderie but also signal a wider geopolitical churn meant to shake the west’s hegemony over world affairs.
Russia has been facing international isolation since 2022 when it invaded Ukraine and the countries which have been dealing with Moscow are also on the radar. Among the prominent nations ignoring the west’s warning is India, a country which has emerged as the largest buyer of Russian oil. Not only that India is one of the few countries in the world which has not condemned the Russian aggression in Ukraine.
The US punished the south asian republic by imposing 25% extra tariff thereby damaging the indian economy substantially. It banned the Russian oil companies exporting oil forcing Indian players not to source oil from Russia.
This has resulted in a tension between India and the USA.
What has compounded the relationship is the regular assertion by President Trump that he played a role in ending the conflict between India and Pakistan after the Operation Sindoor, a claim India denies.
The intractable trade negotiation has further added tension in the relationship. For India this unilateralism demonstrated by the USA in dealing with a trusted ally is a cause of concern. The political leadership in Delhi has come under pressure to demonstrate strategic autonomy and counter the impression that India is a junior partner of the USA and does not have guts to counter the western authoritarianism.
Russia also has its own grievances with the country feeling let down by the Western’s mindless expansion of NATO that it says is the main reason for the conflict in Ukraine. Russia questions the need to encircle it thereby provoking it. Moscow has agreed to the US proposal to end the war but Europe is posing resistance. The talks between Russia and the USA’s representatives in Moscow could not yield much result. The feeling that Russia has is that it is being isolated in the west and its strength as a leading power of the world is being undermined.
Putin’s visit to Delhi took place in this background. For both New Delhi and Moscow the challenge was not to reassert the old friendship but also send a signal to the west that they will not come under pressure.
India in particular has a challenge of convincing the domestic audience that it has autonomy in its foreign policy, that it is not succumbing under the US pressure.
The visit therefore conveyed a strong message to the domestic audience and international community that India does not believe in following a particular camp but it trusts multi alignment and it will keep pursuing its one strategic interests.
In terms of the final outcome of the meeting there has been modest progress with the agreement to send Indian labour and skilled workers to Russia is a novel development. The focus has been to expand trade and not to keep the relationship defence centric.
So the new reimagination of the old relationship is a marked departure from the past.
Russia is also keen to broaden the contours of ties with India and assert its supremacy in the western hemisphere.
Putin’s trip to India might be a turning point in world politics.DD
