"Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's high-profile visit to Moscow last week set off a firestorm of criticism in the West.
That Mr. Modi's first visit to Russia since 2019 drew rebukes should surprise no one. By choosing Russia rather than a neighboring country for his first bilateral official visit in his third term as prime minister, Mr. Modi elevated the trip's significance. Thanks to partially overlapping dates with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's summit in Washington, Mr. Modi's Moscow sojourn appeared designed to undermine the Biden administration's efforts to isolate Russia.
To make matters worse, images of Mr. Modi hugging Vladimir Putin, riding in a golf cart around the Russian strongman's private residence, and accepting Russia's highest civilian award -- the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle disappointed the West
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted that the Modi-Putin hug was "a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts." Former Trump national security adviser H.R. McMaster tweeted that it's "time to reassess the relationship with India based on much lower expectations."
In a rare note of public caution, U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti said that the U.S.-India relationship was "not yet deep enough" to be taken for granted. The British TV personality Piers Morgan was blunter. "Shame on you," he tweeted, while sharing a video of Mr. Modi accepting the award from Mr. Putin.
Why would India risk upsetting its Western partners to please Moscow? The reasons are complex.
As Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has pointed out, India views the Eurasian landmass as dominated by three major powers: China, India and Russia.
"India's longstanding rivalry with China -- including border tensions that have lasted more than four years -- drives its efforts to prevent Moscow from drawing closer to Beijing.
India's dependence on Russian arms looms large in the relationship. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates that only 36% of Indian arms imports between 2019 and 2023 were from Russia, down from 76% between 2009 and 2013. But India's large inventory of Soviet and Russian weapons means it's still dependent on Moscow for spare parts and ammunition.
India has saved about $13 billion by buying steeply discounted Russian oil since 2022, according to ICRA, a rating agency. India also sourced about a quarter of its imported fertilizer from Russia last year.
Domestically, India hasn't fully shed its old Cold War habit of measuring its independence by its ability to thumb its nose at America. Even today, some of India's foreign-policy commentators view Russia in a sentimental light, as the friend that helped India stare down an unfriendly U.S. in the 1971 India-Pakistan war, the conflict that led to the birth of Bangladesh. Dealing with Russia can also seem simpler than dealing with the U.S. Mr. Putin raises no pesky questions about democratic backsliding or "human rights", and the Russian media tamely takes its cues from the Kremlin.
Russophile Indian pundits hold an almost mystical view of Russia as an eternal great power.
Indian foreign-policy scholar Zorawar Daulet Singh says Russia is "too proud, too independent and too militarily powerful to ever submit to China."
Mr. Jaishankar, the foreign minister, calls India's "special and privileged strategic partnership" with Russia the "one constant in world politics."" [1]
The West has to quickly put its house in order. American Trump started already. What about the EU?
1. East is East: India and Russia: Less Than Meets the Eye. Dhume, Sadanand. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 18 July 2024: A.13.
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