India-Russia: News & Analysis

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IndraD
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by IndraD »

Cyrano wrote:Not good for India, our trajectory goes into unknown from there.
Russia winning in Ukraine and holding off US' warmongering for another decade or so will create the space and time for India to consolidate and really emerge as another pole that can't simply be toyed with.
such questions are asked when US has resumed F16 spare supply to Pakistan few days back & withheld vaccine ingredient when delta wave lashed India! Never backed India when it mattered including 1971 when we won with some help from Russia in sea! US is a fickle partner and untrustworthy. This forum's name is Bharat Rakshak not America Rakshak, for later there are many other forums out there.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by Karan M »

vimal wrote:They are doing whats in their best interest. Why are so many folks so pro-rus?
This thread should only be about india-rus strategic alignment not our anti-west views. We have no skin in this west vs rus game anyway.
We absolutely have a lot of skin in the game to prevent a second collapse of Russia. Perhaps you are young (I dont know?) and don't remember what happened during the fall of the USSR, we faced huge strategic challenges. It is in India's interest to have a multi-polar world. Currently two poles are attracting the wests fear and hatred (China and Russia) and contempt (India) on account of perceived strategic rivalry (China and Russia) and civilizational inferiority (India). You can imagine what will happen if Russia falls off the table and India is to take it's place. Even though we strive to be atmanirbhar, Russia is a strong source of Indian warfighting technology and also helps us in strategic programs where west simply won't. It is also a commodity superpower and also provides backing in UNSC and multiple fora.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by A Deshmukh »

With EU gone, if Rus falls, Amrican MIC will train their guns on India and this will include internal fissures, terrorists, trade & financial, technological, propaganda.....everything.
It is in our interests that Rus continues to resist the western MIC for at least a decade more.
and all the while we need to look like we are pro-west/or neutral.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by vimal »

^^ I agree to a lot of things above but the trick is to appear nuetral not pro this or that anyway all IMHO.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by Amber G. »

"Bahut Shandar mahotsav hai!" says Russian ambassador as he takes parts in Navratri celebrations!
https://twitter.com/i/status/1576286448441266177
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by vinod »

A Deshmukh wrote:With EU gone, if Rus falls, Amrican MIC will train their guns on India and this will include internal fissures, terrorists, trade & financial, technological, propaganda.....everything.
It is in our interests that Rus continues to resist the western MIC for at least a decade more.
and all the while we need to look like we are pro-west/or neutral.
Either way India is going to be in line at some point. The difficult bit is to choosing the time to meet that head on which is favourable to India than US.
With Russia gone, US needs India against China. So, a pliable govt to do their bidding will mean some kind of engineering of revolution here.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by g.sarkar »

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/29/indias- ... alyst.html
India’s military relationship with Russia isn’t going away — it’ll ‘endure for decades,’ analyst says
Lee Ying Shan, SEP 28 20228
KEY POINTS

*Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have publicly rebuked Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine, but the longstanding friendship between the two countries isn’t going away, analysts said.
*“India is in a unique position where it needs Russia in the short term to manage China,” said Harsh V. Pant, vice president of studies and foreign policy at Observer Research Foundation, a Delhi-based think tank.
*“The bulk of India’s conventional weapons are sourced from Russia,” said Sameer Lalwani, a senior expert at the U.S. Institute of Peace. ”[This] means that it relies heavily on Russia for force sustainment including spares, maintenance, and upgrades for years.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have publicly rebuked Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine, but the longstanding friendship between the two countries isn’t going away, analysts said.
“Today’s era is not an era of war, and I have spoken to you on the phone about this,” Modi said to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, two weeks ago.
That marked a shift in tone from the early days of the war, when India was seen as unwilling to criticize Russia, given its abstention from a U.N. vote censuring the country for the invasion, among other things.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, for his part, claimed that Russia and India were “friends,” a month after Ukraine was invaded.
But despite India’s apparent change in stance over the war, India still needs Russia, analysts told CNBC.
Countering China
“India is in a unique position where it needs Russia in the short term to manage China,” said Harsh V. Pant, vice president of studies and foreign policy at Observer Research Foundation, a Delhi-based think tank.
Pant added that India needs the West over the long term in handling its relations with China, citing the latter as “the most important strategic challenger for India.”
China and India have been locked in a two-year-long border dispute in the Himalayas, although troops from both sides have recently started disengaging from the western side. But both still had thousands of soldiers lined up along the de facto border, known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
The future of China and India’s relationship is going to be a difficult one, said Raymond Vickery, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
At a regular Indian Foreign Office news briefing in August, the spokesperson affirmed that India’s policies are “consistent” and “do not require reiteration,” when asked about Delhi’s approach to the “One China” policy.
“In addition, there’s a whole Belt and Road Initiative, which is designed really to give China control over the Indo-Pacific eventually,” Vickery said.
......
Gautam
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by kancha »

Shared some thoughts on the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Blog Link
Twitter Link
At the outset, I’ll begin with a sincere ‘R.I.P Ukraine’.

Anyone with a reasonable thinking head on his shoulders would have come to a conclusion by now that Russia is just not going to stop before either Ukraine is utterly destroyed, or a Russia-friendly regime replaces the Kiev Comedian that has gone amok. However, that doesn’t mean they would just back off from interfering in Russia’s backyard, especially after repeated assertions of this being construed as a Redline by Russia!

On the contrary, nothing would please them more than to see Russia getting into a prolonged war.
Moving on to the other side of the borders, news of the mobilization by Russian last month seems to have already been forgotten, thanks to what has followed since then.

But remember, post WW1 and WW2, I don’t think Russians ever ordered such a mobilization.

This announcement by itself should have been an alarm bell for the West.

Do note I didn’t say Ukraine, but instead, I said ‘West’. That is because IMO, the Ukrainian leadership have already handed over control over what comes next, to the West.

Once again, feel free to disagree.

What caused Russia to mobilize was a series of setbacks on the battlefield, thanks to the uninterrupted and unparalleled influx of advanced weaponry from the West into Ukraine. They chose NOT to see the fact that thus far Russian attacks were kept relatively localised to what was assumed to be lands inhabited mostly by ethnic Russian peoples.

Pretty soon came the referenda in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, this time backed up with a Russian military that was rapidly increasing the number of troops on Ukrainian borders.

A sensible leadership would have read the tea leaves and sought a negotiated settlement, even if from a relatively weaker position.

But for that, you need a politician leading the country, not a showman recording statements in front of a green screen!
Of course, the voices of ‘outrage’ became even shriller as the days went by. However, if you noticed, there was one thing that was constant in all this right from the beginning of the conflict – It was Putin’s war against Ukraine.

It has always been Putin that was painted as the bad man hell bent upon destroying a smaller country. Btw, a thought that I have been having for some days now: By making it Putin’s War against Ukraine and scaremongering about nukes, is it correct to say that the West is positing for an assassination?

Never mind, that the smaller country itself is being egged on with vague promises of NATO membership by the same folks who now act aghast at the punishment being meted out to it!

Of course, a NATO membership for Ukraine would never have happened in the best of the circumstances, not to talk about what shit it is in as of right now. For all their boom and bluster, they are happy to fight the Russians so long as their own soldiers aren’t the ones dying.
But fact of the matter remains that however sad that day might be, but in case Putin decides to actually use a nuke, even a tactical nuke, over Ukraine what will the West do?

Will they nuke Russia in return? And risk a nuclear retaliation on themselves?
But as the war dragged on (majorly due to Europe and USA’s own hyperbole), they realised the need for gas in the fast arriving winters. Already, common people in Europe were feeling the heat, even if merely figuratively, since there was little gas to actually heat up their homes!

And VOILA .. the NordStream pipeline got MAGICALLY damaged!

Or was it sabotaged by ‘someone’ out of a ‘necessity’ to remove any hope of gas supplies in winter, thereby removing any reason for civil protests against their warmonger govts?
The world is fast heading for a major shake-up. In fact, I’d say that we are well into one. How that ends up will only be known once the dust settles, which might take upto a decade or even more. But one thing is for sure – the current world order is dying fast.

Dare I say, India too won’t be left untouched.

Multiple hits have already started ever since the West realized that India doesn’t quit appreciate a ‘With us or Against us’ kind of scenario and has its own interests as a priority instead. And no, it isn’t for the first time that India has acted in its own self-interest either!
As far as Ukraine in its current form is concerned, they already are collateral damage. In fact, history and geography had predicated this outcome for them.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by Cyrano »

People in the current Ukranian regime seem to have very clear ideas about the future,
The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kirill Budanov, said that “until the end of the year, we will still make significant progress, these will be significant victories, you will see it soon. Before the summer, this should all come to an end, for a start we will reach the borders of 91 years.

Speaking about future plans, he noted that “after the end of the war, a very serious political process will begin, also associated with changes in the current Russian Federation. Certain parts will detach from Russia. Russia will pay reparations to us. It's all waiting for them. This will lead to the shift of a certain economic center, which is in the Russian Federation, to our territory. That is, there are a lot of very steps.”
They seem to think they have the hero role in a grand global realignment drama being played out under US direction.

This kind of deep deluded thinking is a clear sign of malevolent fanaticism. One can't reason or argue with it.

Russia has come to the bitter realisation that they let the maidan coup happen in 2014 and let things slide in Ukr until a massive SMO was needed in Feb2022. They won't be repeating such mistakes anymore.

Russia's disappointment and cold anger towards the west is palpable, but what's really notable is that they no longer hold any illusions or hope that the relationship with the west can be mended some day.
It makes no sense for Russia to maintain its former diplomatic presence in the West, - Lavrov.

"There is no sense and no desire to maintain the same presence in Western countries. Our people work in conditions that can hardly be called humane. They create constant problems, threats of physical attacks. The main thing is that there is no work there, since Europe has decided to close itself off from us and stop all economic cooperation. You will not be forced to be kind," said the minister.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by chetak »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v0uupnRIK4


Russia Reaches Out to India to Overcome Sanctions | Putin's Demands | Russia Ukraine War




30 Nov 2022
Russia Reaches Out to India to Overcome Sanctions | Putin's Demands | Russia Ukraine War. The war in Ukraine has meant Russia’s economy has come under a tremendous barrage of sanctions from the West. Russia is not being supplied with some important parts needed by the country’s manufacturing sector. Traditionally, Russia got parts for its automobile and aviation sectors from the United States and Europe. So, Russia is looking at alternatives, and here’s where India comes in.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by chetak »

Russian G20 Sherpa Svetlana Lukash said Russian President Vladimir Putin will participate in the New Delhi G20 Leadership Summit


https://www.news18.com/news/world/russi ... 85007.html
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by Amber G. »

Russian FM Lavrov on rise of India
-Has vast diplomatic experience in settling various kinds of problems
-leading countries in terms of eco growth
-Has authority & a reputation in its region
-Back's UNSC bid

Full transcript during address at Primakov Readings Intl Forum, Moscow:
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by krithivas »

Vladimir Putin had been due to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi later this month. However, in a sign of growing Russian isolation on the world stage, an Indian government source said the meeting has now been abruptly cancelled. The move to cancel the annual face-to-face meeting was taken after veiled threats by Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war, according to Bloomberg News.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pu ... f33dee35c7
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by vinod »

krithivas wrote:
Vladimir Putin had been due to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi later this month. However, in a sign of growing Russian isolation on the world stage, an Indian government source said the meeting has now been abruptly cancelled. The move to cancel the annual face-to-face meeting was taken after veiled threats by Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war, according to Bloomberg News.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pu ... f33dee35c7
They met in September. The reason is pure speculations and propaganda!
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by IndraD »

uk news rags like the sun, mirror, daily express and many more completely survive on spins and concocted stories
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by chetak »

Russia offers India help in leasing and building large-capacity ships to overcome G7's oil price cap

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ ... 253904.ece
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by tandav »

Many Important Russian People have died of unnatural causes in recent time. Some in India

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/27/busi ... index.html
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by g.sarkar »

http://www.foxnews.com/world/sausage-ki ... dian-hotel
Sausage king of Russia dead after allegedly falling out of window at Indian hotel
A number of businessmen have turned up dead over the past few months as Russians grow increasingly dissatisfied with the drawn-out invasion in Ukraine
Timothy H.J. Nerozzi | Fox News

Pavel Antov, a sausage tycoon and local politician in Russia, has been found dead.
Antov, 65, was found dead Sunday at the Hotel Sai International in Rayagada, India, after celebrating his birthday in the days prior.
The prominent millionaire reportedly fell from the window of the hotel in Rayagada, India he was staying in, according to Russian media.
......
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Writing from Kolkata, West Bangla Desh
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by Amber G. »

Russian President Putin meets Indian NSA Ajit Doval along with NSAs of Iran, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan in Moscow.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by A Deshmukh »

why does Rus go for such settings?
Does Putin have some condition they want to hide?
are there other closeup pictures? was there a 1-on-1 meeting between Doval and Putin?
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by Cyrano »

It seems Putin is very concerned about contagions and physical attacks on him when meeting groups of people. He does the same or worse with his own ministers and officials in group meetings. I find this strange too... but given the whole of "international community" wants him gone at any cost, I don't blame him too much.

He is quite normal during 1 on 1s and gets close to his guest/visitor.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by Avid »

A Deshmukh wrote:why does Rus go for such settings?
Does Putin have some condition they want to hide?
are there other closeup pictures? was there a 1-on-1 meeting between Doval and Putin?
It is an implicit psychological factor.

These are NSAs; and he is the President. It is not a meeting amongst the equals.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by Amber G. »

^^^ Vladimir Putin has used the famous BIG table in meetings with world leaders, like Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz and António Guterres...(seated at one end of a very long white meeting table, with the other participants seated far away from him at the other end).. Putin has also been pictured attending similarly distanced meetings with his own officials at other long tables.. well known and origin of lot of cartoons!..

Here is Macron.. :)
Image

And .. the meme ..
Image
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by Amber G. »

To be fair.. the above one is not so big compared to this table at the sixth Caspian Summit ... so huge that Putin himself — seated on the far end —can hardly be seen in some official photos.. (From: Office of the President of Russia):
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by Cyrano »

I guess he also turns off heating while wearing thermals to make sure his audience shivers :)
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by sanman »

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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by eklavya »

Russian Arms Sales to India Stall Due to Fears Over US Sanctions
Russian deliveries of military supplies to India have ground to a halt as the countries struggle to find a payment mechanism that doesn’t violate US sanctions, according to Indian officials with knowledge of the matter.

Indian payments for weapons amounting to more than $2 billion have been stuck for about a year, and Russia has stopped supplying credit for a pipeline of about $10 billion worth of spare parts as well as two S-400 missile-defense system batteries that have yet to be delivered, according to the officials, who asked not be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue. Russia is India’s biggest supplier of weapons needed to deter Pakistan and China.

India is unable to settle the bill in US dollars due to concerns about secondary sanctions, while Russia remains unwilling to accept rupees due to exchange-rate volatility, the officials said. New Delhi also doesn’t want to complete the deal in Russian rubles due to concerns about being able to purchase enough on the open market at a fair rate, they said.

India’s government has proposed Moscow use the rupees from weapons sales to invest in Indian debt and capital markets to avoid stockpiling rupees, they added, but Vladimir Putin’s government doesn’t find that appealing.

One possible solution would be to use euros and dirhams, the currencies used to pay for Indian imports of discounted Russian crude, a senior Indian government official said. However, using these currencies to pay for weapons could invite more scrutiny from the US over sanctions than oil, as well as pushing up costs due to unfavorable exchange rates for India.

Another option under discussion is a mechanism for Russia to offset purchases of Indian imports against the price of the weapons, one of the officials said. But this isn’t easy because Russia had a $37 billion trade surplus last year with India, its third-largest behind China and Turkey, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

India’s Ministry of Defense, Ministry of External Affairs, Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India didn’t respond to phone calls or emailed requests for comment. The Kremlin and Rosonboronexport, Russia’s state arms sale company, also didn’t respond to texts and emailed requests for comment.

The issue of payments for weapons has taken on more urgency of late, and dominated discussions when National Security Adviser Ajit Doval visited Moscow in January, the people said. It also featured heavily in talks in Delhi this week between Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov and India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who said this week that the rupee settlement needed more work.

“There is also understandable concern about the trade imbalance," Jaishankar told reporters. “We need to work together with our Russian friends on a very urgent basis on how to address that imbalance."

India currently operates more than 250 Su-30 MKi Russian-made fighter jets, seven Kilo-class submarines and more than 1,200 Russian-made T-90 tanks — all of which are operational for another decade and need spare parts. Three of five S-400 missile defense systems have already been delivered.

Air Force Hit

The Indian Air Force, which depends on a Russian fleet of fighters and helicopters, is among the worst hit from the disruption in supplies from Moscow, the people said. It’s uncertain whether Russia can perform regular maintenance, they added, potentially leading to vulnerabilities along India’s borders with China and Pakistan.

The India-Russia relationship will come under further scrutiny when Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosts Group of 20 leaders in September, during which the war will be a key focus. That meeting might be holding India back from immediately ironing out the payment mechanism for weapons with Russia, the people said.

Russia remains India’s largest supplier of military hardware, though purchases have slowed by 19% in the last five years due to sanctions and increased competition from other manufacturing countries. India has carefully calibrated its response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, calling for a cease-fire while abstaining from voting on United Nations resolutions condemning the invasion.

Modi will be meeting in the next few weeks with counterparts from the US and other industrialized nations. These countries see India as a bulwark to China’s growing military and economic assertiveness, and have offered to provide defense equipment. But even so, it will take years to wean the nation off Russian weaponry while maintaining a credible defense posture.

While President Joe Biden’s administration has largely refrained from penalizing India for its dealings with Russia, including holding back on penalties for S-400 air defense system, it has taken some action. Last September, a Mumbai-based petrochemical firm Tibalaji Petrochem was added to the sanctions list by the US Department of Treasury for buying petroleum products from Iran.
Last edited by eklavya on 21 Apr 2023 13:48, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by Cyrano »

If we are able to pay for billions of oil imports from Russia, why can't we pay for arms imports? Ah but Bloomberg can't be bothered with such simple logic, can it?
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by eklavya »

^^^
The central banks that control the USD, EUR and AED are permitting payments for oil, but may not do so for all Russian export products e.g. arms.

Our good friend Russia should accept payment in INR.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by Cyrano »

The problem could be that Indian exports to Russia are too less to enable easy Rupee Rouble settlement. Russia and India have such a strong relationship that we can count on Russia to deliver anything critical against a simple IOU from GoI. I really doubt that the matter will be allowed to become a concern by either side.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by eklavya »

Russia can invest in Indian assets (shares, bonds, etc.) until it is free of sanctions and able to repatriate the capital back to Russia. Given the situation on the China border, and India’s independent stance on the Ukraine war, this behaviour from Russia is extremely unfortunate.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by Cyrano »

You make it sound like non cooperation or stonewalling by Russia. I don't see evidence of that. We will work through these issues.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by Dilbu »

M.K.Bhadrakumar
Pivotal moment for India-Russia relations
Most relationships undergo a transition with the passage of time from appreciation of each other to a “state of having,” a desire to possess or even control the other. But the present pivotal moment in the Russian-Indian relationship shows that an equal relationship does not fall into that trap.

Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar drew attention to this salience while addressing a Russian-Indian business forum last week in Delhi, when he called the relationship among the “steadiest” in global relations, and pointed out that the partnership is drawing so much attention not because it has changed but because it has not.
The “liberal internationalist” camp in the Indian media and think tank circuit and ill-informed sections of opinion who launched an assault on the Indian stance on the Ukraine crisis are lately grasping the raison d’être of the government’s handling of the fraught situation that carried risks of a potential confrontation between the West and Russia.

All signs are that Washington, from where Indian lobbyists usually draw encouragement, too has decided to reconcile itself to the Modi government’s unambiguous message to the West that India will pursue a relationship with Russia in its self-interest and will go in whichever directions its interests lie.
The real challenge facing the Biden administration, though, is to take the US-Indian relationship out of the rut of a quintessentially transactional relationship and create a genuine partnership of mutual benefit, which, from the Indian perspective, fits into Modi’s roadmap to “transform India into a developed country” through the coming quarter-century, as he put it in a public speech in Kochi, Kerala, on Monday (May 1).

To be sure, Indian expectations are riding high on development and Delhi will not be content with a mere subaltern role in the United States’ global strategy. The US and its allies see India as a “balancer” in the Indo-Pacific region, but quite obviously, New Delhi has bigger plans.
Bilateral trade has crossed US$45 billion, something unthinkable until Russia turned its back on the West and began pressing the pedal on alternative partnerships in Asia to replace the European partners. On its part, the Modi government has been quick to seize the new opportunity, especially at a time of post-pandemic recovery and the inflation-ridden European and US economies sliding into recession.

This is a golden opportunity for India to gain special privileged access to the vast mineral resources of Siberia and the Russian Far East and the contemporary El Dorado of the Russian Arctic. There is great complementarity here insofar as India with its growth trajectory presents itself as a long-term market for Russia’s resource-based industry across the board.
There are no contradictions really in the Russian-Indian relationship. Some Indian analysts keep parroting the US propaganda that Russia is becoming China’s “junior partner” and that is eroding the Russian-Indian mutual trust.

This calumny stems out of either a flawed understanding or, more likely, a deliberate, contrived distortion that does not take into account the reality that Russia and China are “civilization states,” each in its own right – and they are neighbors with a troubled history – which simply does not allow them to opt for a relationship in a hierarchical order that a formal alliance entails.

The heart of the matter is that Indian ingenuity lies in creating synergy out of the dynamic Russian-Indian-Chinese (RIC) triangle that could create an optimal external environment for its foreign policies to operate regionally and globally. The entrenched narrative on the Sino-Indian relationship that successive Indian governments have fostered poses an impediment. That said, it is not a legacy of the Modi government.
Russia is well placed to create verve in the RIC triangle as its bilateral ties expand and deepen with both China and India. The Modi government pursues a “de-ideologized” foreign policy riveted on national interests. This is only to be expected as the world order changes since India is looking to maximize its interests and embrace a larger strategic and security role for itself. However, fundamentally, India remains a stakeholder in a democratized multipolar international order.

Russia appreciates this nuance and has never been prescriptive.
Dilbu
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by Dilbu »

In the above article Bhadrakumar says there are no contradictions in India-Russia relationship. That may be true but there are contradictions when you expand or extrapolate this to an India-China-Russia relationship. As we can see during this SCO meeting, it is not possible for Russia to maintain an equal relationship with China and India unless it decides to keep quiet on several issues. Since India remains neutral and with one leg in QUAD boat, Russia will increasingly find China a closer and larger ally in its fight against West. China is also trying to broker a deal to bring TSP closer to Russia. Any progress on this front will and is meant to further antagonize India.

So this is indeed a pivotal moment in India-Russia relationship. India will find it increasingly difficult to maintain a fine balance without compromising our own geopolitical goals and both poles are keen to push India towards making a choice before they decide on IFF codes.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by Pratyush »

It is in Russian interests to maintain a strong relationship with India. So that, it has options in dealing with the PRC.

Regardless of how close the relationship between PRC and Russians are.

If Russians tilt slightly towards China. In it's dealing between India and PRC. It runs the risk of losing India as the balancing force in it's relationship with PRC.

India is in a unique and challenging place. Where two of the world powers are counting on it to act as a balancing force in their dealings with the third.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by Avid »

Pratyush wrote:It is in Russian interests to maintain a strong relationship with India. So that, it has options in dealing with the PRC.

Regardless of how close the relationship between PRC and Russians are.

If Russians tilt slightly towards China. In it's dealing between India and PRC. It runs the risk of losing India as the balancing force in it's relationship with PRC.

India is in a unique and challenging place. Where two of the world powers are counting on it to act as a balancing force in their dealings with the third.
Russia is positioning itself in near short-term; and with an eye to 2027 and beyond timeframe.

Near short-term it needs PRC more than PRC needs it.

2027 and beyond -- PRC will need it far more than Russia will want to.

Interestingly -- PRC would want Russia to succeed in the current conflict; but Russia would not want PRC to succeed in 2027 and beyond. Russia would not want a victorious PRC on its border.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by dsreedhar »

Exclusive-India, Russia suspend negotiations to settle trade in rupees
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusiv ... 55557.html

Whats up with that? A bummer if true
g.sarkar
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by g.sarkar »

https://news.abplive.com/news/world/thi ... oa-1600072
'This A Problem. Accumulated Billion Of Rupees But...': Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov On Rupee Trade Talks
Lavrov's comment comes after it was reported that India and Russia have suspended the negotiation of bilateral trade in rupees
ABP News Bureau, 05 May 2023

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday said that Russia has accumulated billion of rupees in Indian bank accounts but to use this money it needs to be transferred to another currency and this is being discussed now. The comment comes after it was reported that India and Russia have suspended the negotiation of bilateral trade in rupees.
When asked about the suspension of Rupee-Rouble trade talks in a press conference following the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, "As for the rupees, this a problem. Because we accumulated billion of rupees in Indian bank accounts. We need to use this money, but to use this money it needs to be transferred to another currency and this is being discussed now."
Citing two government officials, Reuters on Thursday reported that after months of negotiations India failed to convince Russia to keep rupees in its coffers. An Indian government official had told the news agency that Russia believes that it will end up with an annual rupee surplus of over $40 billion if a rupee settlement mechanism is established due to a high trade gap that favors Russia.
The report said that Russia views Rupee accumulation as "not desirable."
However, a Russian official denied the report saying, "No change in bilateral developments, wishful thinking by Western news agencies," according to ANI.
India began exploring a rupee settlement mechanism with Russia shortly after the invasion of Ukraine in February of last year. However, most trade continues to be conducted in dollars. Although India and Russia have discussed the possibility of facilitating trade in local currencies, no formal guidelines have been established.
......
Gautam
Also: https://www.reuters.com/markets/currenc ... 023-05-04/
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by sanman »



I sympathize with the Russians on this -- because our idiot Indians don't want to manufacture much useful stuff worth buying -- certainly not enough that can be sold back to offset the import of oil.

This is one reason that FTAs don't work for India. Our idiot media of course don't like to mention these problems.
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Re: India-Russia: News & Analysis

Post by Cyrano »

Our historic exports since independence have been raw materials, minerals, leather, and post green revolution some food grains, handicrafts, and services got added in the past 3 decades etc. Russia has plenty of the same and it's small economy, small population and language barriers make services mostly irrelevant.

A few months ago Russia gave a list of manufactured items including electronics and auto parts, machine tools etc they are willing to import from India but Indian industry reaction has been near zero for 2 reasons, 1. companies' fear of US sanctions (no one really knows what they will be and how they will impact) and 2. unwillingness to commit capital to produce for the Russian market. Atleast partly because capital is costly in India plus exploiting long term potential of Russian market requires investment and presence there but all our people only want to go to US/Can and Europe. We will do business at our own comfortable pace and style. If we can get by and do well with that approach, heck why not? So I'm not blaming Indian businesses wholesale, nevertheless the situation is that we buy oil by shiploads from Russia but have nothing much to sell them to balance the equation. And neither of us have a currency that is widely desired or accepted for a variety of reasons that can't be solved in a day or a year. So a third currency is needed. Russia presumably doesn't want the dollar and we don't want the Yuan.
So the current impasse is understandable. This is what a rearranging world order really means. Not everything will be easy or go as planned.

I'm sure our trade and commerce ministry and finance ministry are working hard with their counterparts and business houses to figure out ways to deal with the situation. Let's see ...
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