Modi has fought a delicate balance between maintaining his country’s historically warm ties with Moscow and courting closer security partnerships with Western nations as a bulwark against regional rival China.
His government has avoided explicit condemnations of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the more than two years since the conflict began, instead urging both sides to resolve their differences through dialogue.
Modi’s July visit to Moscow came hours after a Russian barrage hit multiple cities across Ukraine, killing more than three dozen people and heavily damaging a children’s hospital in Kyiv.
Modi was pictured hugging Putin at his country residence a day earlier, drawing condemnation from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
India and Russia have maintained close links since the Cold War, which saw the Kremlin become a key arms provider to the country.
Since the Ukraine conflict began Russia has also become a major supplier of cut-price crude oil to India, providing a much-needed export market after the imposition of Western sanctions.
That has dramatically reconfigured their economic ties, with India saving billions of dollars while bolstering Moscow’s war coffers.
But Russia’s fight with Ukraine has also had a human cost for India.
New Delhi has pushed Moscow to return several of its citizens who signed up for “support jobs” with the Russian military but were later sent to fight on the frontlines in Ukraine.
At least five Indian soldiers have died in the conflict.
Western powers have cultivated stronger relations with India as a hedge against China and its growing influence across the Asia-Pacific region while pressuring New Delhi to distance itself from Russia.
India is part of the Quad grouping with the US, Japan and Australia that positions itself against China’s growing assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region.
Modi also visited Russia in 2019 and hosted Putin in New Delhi two years later, weeks before Russia began its offensive against Ukraine.
India has largely shied away from explicit condemnation of Russia ever since and abstained from United Nations resolutions targeting the Kremlin.
AFP
