In Russia, reboot of legacy connect

New Delhi must ensure that its close ties with Moscow don’t impact its friendship with the West

- 

A fallout of US President Donald Trump's tariff aggression is the deepening of India-Russia ties. Moscow has been a legacy partner for New Delhi since the days of the Soviet Union, of course.

Despite India professing nonalignment during the Cold War, it sided with the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s — the Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation in August 1971, before the Bangladesh war in December, cemented the relationship — but this cooled off in the 1990s, when the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia rose from its debris, and thereafter. In the last two decades, India pivoted more towards the US, though it never really cut off its relations, especially in defence matters, with Russia. This time, Washington has left New Delhi with no option but to infuse more substance into its ties with Moscow. External affairs minister S Jaishankar’s Moscow visit, Russia reiterating its support for New Delhi, and the announcement that Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit India later this year suggest that the relationship has come full circle.