India-Russia ties and the heft of its history

One of the striking developments of the turbulence unleashed in the last six months, has been the revitalisation of the India-Russian relationship.

- Manoj Joshi

US President Donald Trump is not responsible for all of it, but he has certainly played a leading role in bringing this on.

India-Russia relations have been fairly even in the past decade, and India did not allow its disquiet over the Russia-Ukraine war to affect the relationship. But now, the chill in India-US ties is generating a degree of warmth in our time-tested Russian relationship because the US coolness arises from Washington's efforts to dent India-Russia ties.

Before Prime Minister Narendra Modi rode with President Vladimir Putin at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), national security adviser Ajit Doval and external affairs minister S Jaishankar visited Moscow on separate occasions in August. Their primary mission was to set the stage for the 23rd India-Russia annual summit for which Putin plans to travel to New Delhi later this year — the first time since 2021.

All this had nothing to do with the US. But it coincided with a somewhat ham-handed Trump effort to organise a ceasefire and peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Despite bending over backwards to please President Putin, the US failed to work out a deal. In a bid to pressure Moscow, the US targeted Indian purchase of Russian oil.

Of late, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro has almost daily made wild accusations against India, including funding the Russian campaign in Ukraine. And then there are the 25% tariffs on Indian exports to the US as “penalty” for buying Russian oil.