(Moscow) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Moscow on Monday for his first visit to Russia since the assault on Ukraine, as India seeks to maintain its traditional alliance with Moscow and pursue its strategy of autonomous positioning.
Mr Modi, who was re-elected as president in June, met with Putin in an “informal” one-on-one meeting in the evening. The two men will also meet again on Tuesday for broader talks, before the Indian leader heads to Vienna.
They appeared on Russian television over a cup of tea at Mr Putin’s residence in Novo-Ogaryovo, near Moscow. The president also drove his counterpart around the gardens in an electric car and the two men watched a horse show, according to Russian news agencies.
“You have your own ideas, you are a very energetic person, you know how to achieve results in the interests of India and the Indian people,” the Russian leader said.
Mr. Modi thanked Mr. Putin for the welcome and said he was “looking forward to tomorrow’s talks, which will certainly help strengthen the bonds of friendship between India and Russia.”
Russia is a key supplier of arms and cheap oil to India, although its confrontation with the West and rapprochement with China over the conflict in Ukraine have had an impact on its relations with New Delhi.
The leader of the Asian giant will discuss with the Russian president the “development of traditionally friendly Russian-Indian relations, as well as the international agenda,” according to the Kremlin.
The United States and its Western allies have cultivated ties with India in recent years to counter China’s growing influence in the Asia-Pacific region while pressuring it to move away from Moscow.
New Delhi, however, has refused to take a clear side by not explicitly condemning the Russian attack on Ukraine and by abstaining from voting on UN resolutions against Moscow.
It is in this context that Washington urged Mr Modi on Monday to insist on the “sovereignty” and “territorial integrity” of Ukraine during this visit.
A supporter of a multipolar world, India continues at the same time to develop its relations in the field of security with the United States, a hated rival of Russia, which poses as the champion of multipolarity with the primary objective of weakening the West on the world stage.
The conflict in Ukraine, however, has “transformed” its relations with Moscow, says expert Swasti Rao of the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses think tank, noting that new “challenges” have emerged.
More oil, fewer weapons
Narendra Modi, who won a third term as head of the world’s most populous country in June, last visited Russia in 2019. Two years later, at the end of 2021, he welcomed Vladimir Putin to New Delhi.
The two leaders last met officially in September 2022, in Uzbekistan, at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
Moscow and New Delhi have had a close relationship since the Cold War. For a long time, Russia was India’s main supplier of arms, and now the share of Russian arms imports has fallen sharply in recent years.
The intensity of the conflict against Ukraine has monopolized and melted Russian arms stocks, pushing its Indian partner to seek other suppliers and to develop its own military industry. For example, it has ordered French Rafale aircraft for its air force.
At the same time, in the wake of the Russian attack in February 2022, India purchased significant quantities of Russian oil sold at a discount and redirected, due to Western sanctions, to the Indian market by Moscow.
New Delhi is thus saving money while fueling the Kremlin’s economy and war machine, which has earned it criticism from Western governments.
” Too late ”
However, there are still potential areas of tension.
India, in particular, views with suspicion the strong rapprochement underway between its great Chinese rival and Moscow, fearing that it would find itself dominated by an enormous Russian-Chinese geographical entity led by Beijing.
“Some think India needs to get very close to Russia to avoid falling into the Chinese fold,” says analyst Swasti Rao. “Others think it’s too late.”
The Russian attack on Ukraine has also had a human cost for India. In February, New Delhi said it was pushing the Kremlin to return Indian citizens who had found themselves fighting on the front lines.
After Moscow, Narendra Modi is due to travel to Vienna, for the first visit by an Indian leader to the Austrian capital since 1983.