Everyone loves a good host. Everyone loves a powerful host. Everyone loves a host who gives guided tours.
In this limited regard, the Prime Minister of India is no different from this author. Both are cherished guests in their gracious hosts' respective homes, and this summer sojourn is loaded with meaning for all and sundry. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Moscow visits, six so far, always generate interest across global capitals. The latest two-day visit is no exception.
Beyond The Romanticism
Once we are done decoding the symbolism behind the Putin-Modi "bear hug" and the host driving his Indian counterpart in an electric car, it needs to come down to the brass tacks. How much do Russia and India matter to each other today? This question can be answered only after stripping it of all the romanticism defining the India-Russia relationship.
Modi's Putin meeting has happened at an interesting juncture in history for both the leaders. While the Indian Prime Minister has just started his consecutive third term with a much smaller mandate than his previous two stints, Putin's domestic base is shaky as usual. The Western world, however, continues to view them critically.
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The Western capitals are already abuzz with how India has flouted the 'rules' to pursue its own interests. Much like China. Or Iran. Or other countries challenging the West's diktats to isolate Putin by continuing their economic and diplomatic relations with Russia. For India, the biggest challenge is to set itself apart from the so-called 'untouchables'. But how does India do it when it already has the status of being the second-largest importer of Russian oil? Modi is now the recipient of the Russian government's highest civilian honour, the Order of St. Andrew. The timing of this trip has been a bit tricky for Modi, for sure, with Russia bombing a children's hospital in Ukraine on the same day. India can choose to ignore Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, sharing his disappointment, but what is this Russian friendship worth to India today, if it only comes with expressions of reproach and disappointment from friends?
Friends And Enemies
India has a China issue. Not a problem as the world would want India to believe, but an issue - a neighbourhood issue. Russia's alleged no-limits friendship with China is India's ace in this geopolitical game. China does not care for its enemies' threats; it may listen to its friends, now scattered far and few between. India knows well to lean on such friends. New Delhi's ideological flexibility allows it to do so.
"The international system is anarchic. The most basic motive driving states is survival," says the propounder of the theory of offensive realism, John Mearsheimer. India carries out its offensive with charm. 'Strategic autonomy' is a theoretical concept for the West, if it applies to countries it doesn't think of as deserving of the said autonomy. India has been able to survive as a functioning democracy for more than seven decades, in part, because of its strategic autonomy. Not descending into the nadir of foreign-aided civil wars, coups, and constitutional chaos like its neighbours has been India's biggest achievement since independence.
Modi's Card In Moscow
The deterioration of US-China relations in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989 coincided with the beginning of the rise of India and China as economic powers to reckon with. The economic reforms of the early 1990s paved the way for India's quick, and resilient, rise. Whether we could have done better or what more could have been done to keep the momentum going is another debate altogether. How China surpassed India significantly is also not germane to the issue at hand. What is, indeed, important is India's present stance as an important regional player. And this is the card that Modi carried to Moscow.
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Putin is relying on its space and nuclear power to not only assert its regional dominance but also consolidate its position in the global world order. India, too, has made significant strides in these areas. India needs nuclear tech, Russia is willing to sell it. The calculation is simple. The six nuclear plants under discussion, the establishment of defence production facilities, military cooperation, the development of national payment systems to discard the dollar dependence, and an unending supply of Russian oil to fuel India's infrastructure dreams are important for both Moscow and New Delhi. And they are equally important for policymakers and analysts in the West. With a freshly renewed friendship with Russia, where can India be pegged in the new geopolitical order?
Modi's visit to Moscow has been undertaken from a position of power. It is neither a hollow gesture of sanctimony nor should it be seen as escapism. No wonder it has irked the many power centres in the US and Europe. But India has done nothing new or extraordinary or even in contravention of the country's long-held foreign policy. New Delhi remains non-aligned. But it's also beginning to look out for itself.
And good friends and hosts enable anyone attempting to do so.
(Nishtha Gautam is a Delhi-based author and academic.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author