MUMBAI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday makes his first visit to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine, walking a fine line between maintaining a longstanding Moscow alliance while courting closer Western security ties.
Russia is a key supplier of cut-price oil and weapons to India, but its isolation from the West and growing friendship with China have impacted its time-honoured partnership with New Delhi.
The United States and its Western allies have in recent years cultivated ties with India as a bulwark against Beijing and its growing influence in the Asia-Pacific, while also pressuring it to distance itself from Russia.
Modi, who was returned to power last month as leader of the world’s most populous country, last visited Russia in 2019 and hosted President Vladimir Putin in New Delhi two years later, weeks before the invasion.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has “transformed” ties with India, said Swasti Rao, from a think tank funded by India’s defence ministry, the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.
“There is no decline in goodwill between India and Russia per se,” she said. “But there are challenges that have cropped up.
“These are external factors, which have been strong enough to bring in a paradigm shift in India-Russia bilateral issues,” she added.
Nandan Unnikrishnan of the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation said the upcoming in-person meeting showed the two sides were looking for ways forward.
India’s Modi to visit Russia next week
“There have been pressures on India, and there have been pressures on the India-Russia relationship,” Unnikrishnan said.
“Face-to-face interactions help in working out positions,” he added. “I’m sure Mr Modi would like an assessment from Putin on the Ukraine war.”
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