When Vladimir Putin’s plane touches down in New Delhi on Thursday, he will be met with the pomp and ceremony reserved for one of India’s most steadfast partners. Yet his host, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is simultaneously attempting to maintain a deep strategic relationship with a key global rival: the United States.
This is India’s diplomatic split screen. On one side: the potential purchase of advanced Russian fighter jets, cheap oil, and an ironclad friendship forged in the Cold War. On the other: American collaboration on technology, trade and investment – and the hope President Donald Trump will lift his punishing tariffs.
In the wake of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, India has leveraged its strategic assets – a massive market and a pivotal location in the Indo-Pacific – to command attention from both the White House and the Kremlin. But Putin’s trip – his first to India since the start of his war – comes at a tense time for Modi.
New Delhi is negotiating a much-needed trade deal with Washington, after it was slapped with 50% tariffs – half of which was direct punishment for New Delhi’s continued purchases of discounted Russian oil. India’s close ties with Russia were forged during the Cold War, when the newly independent nation was officially “non-aligned” but a recipient of much Soviet industrial and economic aid as it charted its course as a new country.
The tilt towards Moscow, however, came in the 1970s, driven by Washington’s growing military and financial support to India’s arch-rival, Pakistan. Russia started providing arms to India, and Moscow became a reliable counterweight, a role it has valued ever since. Much of this Russian hardware is purchased with an eye on India’s rival China – which has emerged as one of Moscow’s closest partners in recent years, but with whom India has longstanding border tensions.
Beijing, meanwhile, is a major arms supplier to India’s arch-rival Pakistan, including of jets that Pakistan’s military said it used to shoot down Indian fighters during a brief border conflict earlier this year. One of those jets, according to Pakistani officials, was a Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30. Russian Su-30 jets currently make up the majority of India’s 29 fighter squadrons, according to Reuters.
This week’s talks with Russia will likely cover a potential arms deal for its most advanced fighter, the Su-57, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday.
But in recent months, it’s New Delhi’s economic ties with Moscow that have been in the headlines – and have caused the biggest headache.
Source: Here