The Indo-Russian relationship really began in 1962 – the year China invaded India, overrunning its defences in its north-east. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru turned to the United States for aircraft and other materiel. President John F. Kennedy agreed to the request but the Departments of State and Defence prevailed upon him not to upset Pakistan – a country which is part of US-led military alliances. So, the package offered amounted to half of that requested. It came with a raider too.
Nehru backed away from his request for an American aid. He knocked at Moscow instead. Relations with the USSR had changed from about 1952, when the Communist superpower began to support India in the United Nations on resolutions pertaining to Kashmir. It was possibly because of these growing relations that, when the Suez Crisis erupted in 1956, Nehru was far more vociferous in denouncing Western colonialism than the actions of the USSR at the same time in Hungary. This approach paid dividends when Khrushchev denounced China’s madness in attacking India.
Khrushchev assured India that the USSR would never support China’s aggressive policy against India.
India could not forego such strong statements of support that came without the conditions that the US imposed on its support. This established the tone for India’s growing relationship with the USSR, a relationship which extended into the 1990s and which remains strong, despite setbacks, at this time.
In August 1971, amid ongoing tensions with both Pakistan and China, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi signed the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Co-operation with the USSR.
Over time, Indo-Russian relations have extended into the spheres of economics, defence, science and technology, culture and nuclear energy. In political terms, the two countries have grown close, with the Annual Summit between the Prime Minister of India and the President of the Russian Federation being the highest institutionalised dialogue mechanism under the joint Strategic Partnership.
During the 2014 Summit, Prime Minister Modi and President Putin signed agreements covering issues as diverse as co-operation in defence, hydrocarbons, nuclear energy, science and technology, and trade and investment.
At the Dec 2015 summit, the two leaders signed sixteen more agreements, including on defence and nuclear energy. Their Joint Statement was titled: “Druzhba-Dosti: A Vision for strengthening the Indian-Russian Partnership over the next decade.”
Modi met Putin, furthermore, on the sidelines of the seventh BRICS Summit in the Russian city of Ufa, on 8 July 2015 and also had taken part in the celebrations held in Moscow on 9 May 2015 to mark the seventieth anniversary of victory in World War II. Officials of both countries have been meeting on a regular basis.
India and Russia also have a fairly strong economic relationship. Bilateral trade amounted to approximately US$9.5 billion in 2014, with the balance of trade decidedly in Russia’s favour. The two countries have agreed to boost trade to US$30 billion by 2025.
India exported pharmaceuticals, iron and steel, tea and tobacco, among other products and imported defence and nuclear power equipment, fertilisers and electrical products.
There is active co-operation between the two countries in subsurface surveys and exploration for hydrocarbons offshore in Russia’s Arctic region. In 2014 Gazprom, the giant Russian gas organisation signed a MOU with Oil India Ltd., to co-operate in exploration, training, and development of oil fields and sharing of information.
In July 2015, Essar Group and Rosneft signed a preliminary agreement whereby Rosneft would acquire 49 per cent of Essar’s Vadinar Oil refinery and supply crude oil to Essar for the next ten years.
In September, 2015, OVL reached an agreement with Rosneft to acquire a 15 per cent holding in the Vankorneft project.
There is similar co-operation in the sharing of nuclear power generation.
Russia has built the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamilnadu. The first reactor was commissioned in December 2014 and the second will become operational in 2016-17. Russia will build two more units – 3 and 4 at Kudankulam. In addition it will set up at least six more nuclear power plants.
It is, however, in the defence field that the relationship comes into its own. The defence relationship has taken giant strides to the extent that India now manufactures the Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter aircraft under licence.
The two countries collaborated to create the Brahmos Consortium that manufactures the missiles of the same name in India. These missiles have been inducted into India’s defence service.
Russia loaned Akula-class nuclear submarines to India so that the Indian Navy could study them and determine how nuclear submarines could be best inducted and used. The Indian nuclear submarine, the Arihant, was designed and built with Russian input. The fifth-generation fighter aircraft that Russia has designed and is now testing was done in conjunction with Indian input. In short, it is the defence co-operation between the two countries that underscores their relationship.
All is not plain sailing, however. The sorry tale of the INS Vikramaditya, the aircraft carrier that India purchased from Russia, illustrates this point. Negotiations for the purchase of the Admiral Gorshkov, as it was known then, began in 1994 and an Inter-Governmental Agreement for the acquisition of the cruiser, after it had been converted into an aircraft carrier, was signed in 2000.
The delivery date was to be 2008. Cost and time over-runs, however, pushed up the price and pushed the delivery date to 2013.
This transaction in a way soured Indo-Russia relations. Things did not get any better when Delhi, having placed a world-wide tender for 126 medium multi-role fighter aircraft in 2004, eliminated the Russian offerings around 2011. India next increased its purchases of major, strategic aircraft from the US and weapons systems from Israel and France, further souring its relationship with Russia.
Things took a turn for the worse when it was reported that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov stated that Russia could form an axis of co-operation with China and Pakistan. This was first raised in the aftermath of Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu’s visit to Islamabad in November 2014. Russia, it was reported, planned to sell Pakistan its sophisticated and lethal Sukhoi Su-35 aircraft.
Russian embassy in New Delhi sought to play down this announcement by reiterating Moscow’s commitment to the Strategic Partnership Declaration of 2000, whereby both countries are obliged not to undertake activities that could prove detrimental to the security of the other. India was under no delusions as to the danger that such a development would pose.
Modi’s visit to Moscow in December 2015 was, therefore, a bridge-renovating exercise in many respects. Indian Premier began the visit with the remark that Russia remained ‘a strong and reliable friend’. Putin replied that he looked forward to ‘developing the privileged strategic partnership between India and Russia.’ The two leaders then went on to sign sixteen agreements on co-operation in various fields of endeavour. It appears that both recognise their interdependence: India still requires technology transfers and energy; Russia, India’s defence and energy infrastructure spending.
– by Lindsay Hughes, Future Directions International