Indian troops have participated in the Russian-led Zapad-2025 military drills, Russian state agency TASS said on Tuesday, highlighting Moscow’s close ties with New Delhi, whose growing ties with the United States have been strained by the imposition of hefty tariffs by President Donald Trump.
The Indian Ministry of Defence confirmed it had sent 65 armed forces personnel to participate in the drill. At the wargames, Russia and Belarus also rehearsed the launch of Russian tactical nuclear weapons as part of joint military exercises, which also featured the Oreshnik hypersonic missile that Moscow test-fired last year in the war with Ukraine.
This is not the first time that India has participated in Russian military exercises. In 2021, shortly before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, New Delhi said it sent an unspecified number of troops to Russia’s Volgograd region to join activities linked to “Counter Terrorism and Conventional operations”.
But the latest exercises come at a time when India-US relations are under strain over New Delhi’s continued purchase of oil from Russia during the war on Ukraine, and at a time when Europe is on edge over perceived provocations from Moscow.
Western military analysts say the multi-nation drills are designed to intimidate Europe. Last week, Poland and NATO said they shot down Russian drones that entered Polish airspace.
In a statement, the Belarusian Ministry of Defence confirmed that the use of tactical nuclear weapons had been rehearsed along with the deployment of Russia’s hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile that Moscow fired at Ukraine for the first time on November 21 last year.Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said it was only natural that Russian tactical nuclear weapons were also part of the five-day war games that concluded on Tuesday.
“We are practising everything there. They (the West) know this too; we are not hiding it. From firing conventional small arms to nuclear warheads. Again, we must be able to do all this. Otherwise, why would they be on Belarusian territory?” Lukashenko was quoted as saying by Belarusian state news agency BelTA.
Source: Here