What kind of signal did Putin's visit to India send after three years?

■ Yang Shenglan

On December 6, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited India and attended the 21st India-Russia Summit in New Delhi with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is putin's only foreign visit this year, after Putin attended the US-Russia summit in Geneva in June, and it is also Putin's second visit to India after three years.

During the summit, the two sides also held the "2+2" dialogue between the foreign ministers and defense ministers of India and Russia for the first time, and signed a 10-year military and technical cooperation plan agreement.

From the establishment of the strategic partnership between the two countries in 2000 to 2019, the India-Russia Summit has been held for 20 consecutive years. During the 2010 summit, the two countries upgraded the strategic partnership to a "special and preferential strategic partnership." Last year, due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, the annual summit was cancelled after consultation between the two sides. Preparations for the summit began after Indian Foreign Secretary Slingra visited Russia in mid-February.

One of the highlights of the summit was the first "2+2" dialogue between India and Russia, between foreign ministers and defense ministers, as part of an agreement reached during a phone call between Putin and Modi in April. The India-Russia "2+2" dialogue will discuss political diplomacy and defense issues of common concern. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the new mechanism will serve as an effective platform for dialogue to deepen mutual understanding between the two countries and enhance strategic partnership.

So far, India has not only participated in the "Quad Alliance" with the United States, Japan and Australia, but also has not forgotten to maintain positive interaction with Russia. Whether it is the "Four-Power Alliance" or the "Special and Preferential Strategic Partnership" between India and Russia, India has established a "2+2" dialogue mechanism with these countries. So, is the "2+2" dialogue between India and Russia an institutional innovation between the two countries or a balance between the "Four-Power Alliance"? Overall, it is more like a mutual demand based on real interests.

Deepen defense cooperation and seek breakthroughs in economy and trade

First of all, India has a large demand for Russian arms imports, and Russia also attaches great importance to the Indian market. According to the Stockholm Peace Research Institute, 49 percent of India's total arms imports between 2016 and 2020 came from Russia, followed by France and Israel. During the same period, India accounted for 23% of Russia's arms exports. It can be seen from this that whether it is the import or export of weapons, India and Russia need each other. There is no doubt that Putin's visit to India and the defense cooperation between the two countries are an important part of the summit and the "2+2" dialogue.

According to Russian media reports, during the summit, the two sides signed a 10-year agreement on military technical cooperation plans, which means that the various services will strengthen cooperation and deepen the procurement and research and development of weapons and military equipment. It is worth mentioning that between the American Patriot-3 missile and the Russian-made S-400 air defense missile system, India chose the latter. Kashish Palpiani, a researcher at the Indian think tank Observer Research Foundation, and others made a detailed comparison of these two missile defense systems and concluded that the S-400 as a whole is superior to the Patriot-3. During the visit, Putin said Russia intends to continue to interact with India in the field of military technology, including joint exercises.

Second, as one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, Russia is India's focus on its quest for permanent seats on the Security Council. India attaches great importance to bilateral contacts with Russia on the agenda of the Security Council, and in February this year, India and Russia held bilateral consultations at the director general level in Moscow, where India briefed the Russian side on its priorities in the Security Council and prepared for important issues of concern when India assumed the presidency of the Security Council in August. At the same time, since the establishment of the strategic partnership between India and Russia, Russia has also supported India to become a permanent member of the Security Council, which not only has the consideration of the great power game, but also the consideration of seeking profits for Russia in the arms sales market and other fields.

Third, economic and trade issues are also the focus of attention of India and Russia, and both sides are striving to make breakthroughs in this field. At present, the trade volume between the two countries is small and stagnant, and the trade volume between the two countries is stuck at about 10 billion US dollars, which is a big gap compared with the bilateral trade volume of India, China, India and the United States, which is as high as 100 billion US dollars. At the same time, the volume of trade is far from the goal of reaching $30 billion by 2025 set by the leaders of the two countries.

In recent years, energy trade and regional development investment have dominated the main direction of bilateral economic and trade relations. In 2019, Modi launched the Far East Action program at the Fifth Eastern Economic Forum in the Russian far eastern city of Vladivostok and provided $1 billion in credit to support resource development in the region. This measure not only promotes economic and trade ties between India and Russia, but also meets India's diversified needs for energy and other resources to a certain extent, and at the same time helps Russia to introduce multi-party competitive forces in the Far East and stimulate local economic vitality.

Mutual benefit based on practical interests

Mutual benefit and reciprocity based on practical interests are the key words in India-Russia relations. For India, strengthening relations with Russia is not only crucial in defense cooperation, but also a bargaining chip for India when cooperating with the United States and other Western countries in order to "ask for prices on both sides". For Russia, strengthening its interaction with India is another point of strength in the context of its difficult turnaround with the West. India is not only an important market for its foreign arms exports, but also a key target for its pivot to Asia.

Overall, since the establishment of the strategic partnership, India-Russia relations have developed steadily and improved in 2010. However, in recent years, especially after 2017, the development of bilateral relations has encountered more challenges, the biggest challenge being the emergence of the US "Indo-Pacific Strategy" and the increasingly close relationship between India and the United States. At the "2+2" talks held on the 6th, Lavrov once again expressed concern to India about the ACTIVITIES of the United States in the Indo-Pacific region, and intended to distinguish India from other regional alliance mechanisms such as the Aukus Alliance of the United States, in order to show more of India's position on reunification with Russia.

(The author is a scientific research assistant and Ph.D. of the Collaborative Innovation Center for Peripheral Cooperation and Development of East China Normal University)

Source: Wen Wei Po