INDIA-RUSSIA TIES POISED TO GATHER PACE

Putin's Delhi visit highlighted a relationship adjusting to shifting global power equations. Modi and Putin stressed long-term strategic trust, economic ambition, and a quiet defiance of external pressure

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Conceivably, Moscow and Delhi could anticipate the drift of the forthcoming NSS document presaging an imminent shift in the Trump administration's strategic calculus. It must have been a daunting challenge to choreograph a summit with a superpower in such a fluid setting, and it probably accounted for the anticlimactic look of the Modi-Putin summit. The joint statement, titled 'INDIA-RUSSIA: A Time-Tested Progressive Partnership, Anchored in Trust & Mutual Respect', prudently steered clear of the geopolitical convulsions in the international environment. The entire turf of defence ties lies submerged. There was no trace of 'anti-Americanism' in the summit's proceedings.

Nonetheless, the joint statement firmly reaffirmed the further strengthening of the special and privileged strategic partnership and "emphasised the special nature of this longstanding and timetested relationship, which is characterised by mutual trust, respect for each other's core national interests and strategic convergence". It asserted that "as major powers with shared responsibilities, this important relationship continues to be an anchor of global peace and stability that should be ensured upon the basis of equal and indivisible security".