Modi festigt seine Beziehungen zu Russland, während Putin seine Beziehungen zu China vertieft

Submission Statement:

Worried by deepening China-Russia relations, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is heading to Moscow next week for talks with President Vladimir Putin, his first visit to the country since the Kremlin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“The deepening of the strategic alignment between Russia and China is uncomfortable for New Delhi because it’s like your best friend sleeping with the enemy,” said Swasti Rao, an associate fellow at Manohar Parrikar Institute For Defence Studies and Analyses, a Defense Ministry-backed research group in New Delhi. “Given that we have these concerns it makes sense for the prime minister to go there and talk to Putin at the highest level.”

Modi has skipped annual in-person summits with Putin for the past two years amid discomfort in New Delhi over the worst fighting in Europe since World War II. Even so, India has avoided censuring Russia for invading neighboring Ukraine, abstaining at United Nations votes on the issue, and has advocated diplomacy to resolve the conflict.

Oil sales by Russia to India are helping to maintain ties, even if they aren’t as close as during the Soviet era.India saved $13 billion by importing cheaper crude oil from Russia over the previous 23 months, according to a study by ICRA, the rating agency, published in April.

Russia, meanwhile, is seeing its once-dominant position in India’s arms market weaken as New Delhi looks to Western suppliers led by France and the US, as well as to its own defense industry. There have been no new major arms deals with Russia for the last three years, and India’s push to diversify looks set to continue after delays in the delivery of Russian S-400 air defense systems.

“This is about maintaining the status quo,” said Zakharov, the Moscow-based India specialist. “Ties are not deteriorating but there’s no particular drive to improve relations either.”