India’s Russia reset
NEWDELHI: Next Monday in Sochi, the Russian city on the Black Sea, Prime Minister Narendra
ISSUE
The informal summit comes as a surprise. There, perhaps, lies its importance as well. Russia is the only country other than Japan with which India holds an annual summit . The two countries have held 17 such meetings so far. The Indian Prime Minister and Russian President also meet at least three times a year on the sidelines of the summits of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) grouping and the Group of 20 (G20) .
The informal summit amounts to an admission that the two sides have realised their relationship can no longer be driven by the same nostalgia, and familiar templates of military and nuclear cooperation that have characterised ties in the past.
Russia has been complaining that India has made no major military purchase from it in the past four years. For the Russians, India’s diversification in defence purchases, especially in buying from the US, has remained a cause of concern. Meanwhile, Russia Modi will meet President Vladimir Putin in an informal summit to take stock of bilateral ties, devise ways strengthen the relationship and coordinate their positions on fast-paced regional and global developments. has also started looking around for new partners. Though it’s not yet a matter of grave strategic consequences, Russia- Pakistan interactions are a cause of discomfiture to India. The informal summit will give Modi and Putin an opportunity to take stock of their ties and discuss how they will work together, unburdened by any pre-negotiated outcome documents and joint declaration.
SIGNIFICANCE
Moscow has been a timetested friend of India. Russia stood by India in the 1962 war against communist China, in two wars with Pakistan thereafter and refused to join sanctions imposed against New Delhi after it conducted nuclear tests in 1974 and 1998.It remained a steady supplier of arms to India and helped the country on the path of industrialisation.
India and Russia have an institutionalised structure in place to oversee military technical cooperation. The India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Tec- hnical Cooperation (IRIGC-MTC) is at the apex of this structure. The two defence ministers meet annually, alternately in Russia and India, to discuss and review the status of ongoing projects and other issues of military technical cooperation. There are two working groups and seven sub-groups under the IRIGC-MTC that review and discuss an array of military technical issues.The summit will take forward discussions on the trajectory of the relationship.