The ongoing border crisis between India and China has prompted the former to strengthen defence co-operation with ‘old’ friend Russia.
New Delhi has announced that the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force will take part in a mega joint war game with their Russian counterparts from October 19 to 29. The Indian Defence Ministry, which made the announcement in the backdrop of a changing regional security scenario, said in a statement that the main aim of ‘Exercise Indra’ would be to achieve co-ordination between the forces of the two countries. According to the ministry, it will be the first time India will take part in a tri-services exercise with a foreign country.

Indian defence experts are of the opinion that it is a calculated move as New Delhi needs Moscow’s help in tackling Beijing. Experts believe that Russia, which is India’s long standing defence partner, can help resolve the crisis.
However, some experts have expressed a different opinion. They believe that the involvement of Russia may not help resolve the crisis, as Moscow is actually enjoying the Sino-Indian standoff. They claim that Russia will be the biggest gainer, if the crisis continues.
A seasoned defence expert, who wished to remain anonymous, said in New Delhi over the weekend that Russia was eager to export arms and ammunition to India and the Sino-Indian crisis would allow the Russians to take advantage of the situation. The expert also said that Russia, which enjoys close diplomatic and military ties with China, would never ask its southern neighbour to resolve the crisis. In fact, Moscow and Beijing agreed to maintain a high level comprehensive strategic partnership and to reinforce all-round co-operation during the “Belt and Road Forum” meeting held in the Chinese capital in May.

Later in June, Chinese President Xi Jinping held a separate meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) Summit in the Kazakh capital of Astana. On June 29, the Chinese Defence Ministry confirmed that Beijing and Moscow signed a roadmap on military co-operation for 2017-20.
Although Russia signed a similar military roadmap with India on June 23, Moscow is basically trying to play a balancing role. The Chinese president recently said that China and Russia are “good neighbours, good friends and good partners” and the bilateral relations “are now the best ever”. It is clear from President Xi’s statement that Russia would not help India in case of a Sino-Indian conflict. Kremlin can only help India by supplying arms, if a war breaks out.

Most of the Indians believe that Russia, as an all weather and time-tested friend of India, will always stand with India. However, the global geopolitics is far away from it and far more complicated. Russia is associated with both China and India mainly to promote BRICS (an association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) as an alternative platform to US dominated world policies. Hence, Kremlin needs both China and India as an ally to achieve its global ambition.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das