MOSCOW, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Russia and India have made tangible progress in talks on plans to jointly produce military equipment, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday, after talks with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Moscow.
I’m always surprised to read the news and see India preferring the Russian partnership over that of the West.
It’s Modi. Many consider him to be essentially the Indian version of Trump, with all that implies. Including the suspicious Russia ties.
I don’t think it’s prefer one over the other. For India world is not binary. There is a reason it’s called third world country, Russian partnership doesn’t meant distance from West and western partnership doesn’t mean distance from Russia. India doesn’t have the luxury to pick sides. It has to keep engaging all global partners.
I think it also means that all countries keep it at arms distance. Playing Switzerland has advantages and disadvantages.
West has not been a dependable partner to any country in Asia or Africa.
Russia though is a bully, is a local bully and has bloodied his nose in his bullying rather than other way round. One thing that has never happened is that it has never vanished.
Your off the mark on this one. India (it’s government at least) is more aligned with Russia ideologically. They want to be the powerful bully and they want to oppress minorities. The west has movements similar to this, but they aren’t so entrenched and the path against them is much clearer.
India isn’t aligned with the West. They also don’t want to align with the West. Any current cooperation is much like the west being allies with the Soviet Union during world war 2. It’s based on immediate convenience. Largely against china. Despite this India is actively hostile against the west in numerous ways, most recently political assignations in Canada and attempts in USA.
I think this confusion arises because India’s recent history is tied to Britain. So we associate India with western alignment. However, being colonised is going to create resentment and mistrust with the colonisers and their associates.
You are also ignoring the US support to Pakistan against India, support to China.
Disregard to the allies when their job is done, vis-a-vis Afghanistan, Vietnam, Iraq.
US is not innocent of the same crime it blames Russia of. Waging war on false pretenses or do we disregard the Iraq war.
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So the whole thing about colonization is actually not a biggie for India after all?