Putin in India

The first sign that the visit was special was the reception party for Vladimir Putin at the Delhi airport headed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj instead of a middle-level bureaucrat or a Minister of State. The second sign that this was a visit aimed squarely at deliverables was the scrapping of the frills and trappings of diplomacy — the mandatory visit to the Gandhi Samadhi, a gala banquet and a guard of honour. Instead the two principals were closeted as soon as Putin landed and, after a brief break for the night, sat together again before unveiling one of the lengthiest joint statements. The US, because of its potential to act as a spoilsport in Indo-Russia military trade, was the elephant in the room.

But neither Putin nor PM Modi sought to address that elephant directly, neither in the joint statement nor in their respective statements. Instead barely a month after India had walked into a tighter strategic embrace with the US after the signing of the COMCASA military agreement, India appeared to make a 180-degree turn to ink a multi-billion dollar pact for Russian air-defence missile system. This, despite warnings held out by Washington that India can suffer the consequences of secondary sanctions for entering into fresh military trade with Russia.

Russia and India have gone further ahead by expressing intentions for collaboration in energy, joining hands to put the first Indian in space and active assistance to help set up India’s own independent navigation system. Add tentative plans for an India-Russia gas pipeline in the mix and it is clear that both countries have charted out a future together despite the American carrot-and-stick approach. Modi seems to have veered around to the view that it is not good diplomacy to keep near-neighbours at arm’s length. Russia, too, is unlikely to find a bulk buyer of India’s size. It is this mutual interdependency that found reflection in the several Modi-Putin pacts. India, by signing the S-400 deal, has demonstrated its willingness to make independent choices free from superpower pressure.