That old partner

During President Pratibha Patil’s visit in September last year,Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called Indo-Russian ties “a special relationship defined by special trust”. Having weathered the test of time,the two countries indeed still enjoy a friendship forged in the challenges of the Cold War. That political context is long gone,and the Russia that inherited the bulk of the Soviet legacy is a different country. As Putin arrives in India there are,in brief,four pillars of bilateral interests the two nations would look to secure: energy security,defence,trade and geopolitics. Putin’s visit is set to ink about $10 billion worth of deals,mostly in defence collaboration and civilian nuclear reactors. (Russia is building four nuclear reactors in India,with more contracts likely on offer.) This visit is also set to boost bilateral trade which,despite standing at about $8 billion currently,is well below its potential.

India and Russia had somewhat drifted apart in the aftermath of the Soviet collapse,as a weak Russia looked to Europe to redefine its economic and political goals. Although the US and NATO continue to circumscribe its official strategic discourse,Moscow’s focus,in real terms,is shifting to Russia’s Asian neighbourhood. This is where India needs to engage Russia in a geopolitical partnership,reformulating the “special relationship” in less abstract and more concrete terms. Needless to say,the rise of China and the explosive potential of Afghanistan — on which Indian and Russian interests converge — are key strategic concerns in New Delhi and Moscow. Embedded in Indo-Russian geopolitical thinking,of course,is the economic issue of energy security. India,a large net importer of energy,needs access to Russian oil and natural gas. ONGC Videsh has invested close to $3 billion in the Sakhalin oil and gas projects and is looking for more oilfields.

Amidst this grander design,India must call for more Russian investment; in turn,it would like greater access to Russia’s IT,tourism and financial services sectors among others. Around New Delhi and Moscow,the global institutional and political framework keeps changing,and a possible decline of the US — that would further complicate South Asian stability — is not ruled out. The two nations have done well so far to persist with annual events such as the prime ministerial visits. It is time to forge a new relationship,wherein sentiment is not unwelcome but definitely secondary to optimisation and exploitation of each other’s core interests for mutual benefit.