NEW DELHI: According to a new foreign policy plan approved by President Vladimir Putin, Russia has selected China and India as its primary allies on the international scene.
China and India were specifically mentioned in the new 42-page document, which also emphasised the value of “deepening ties and coordination with friendly sovereign global centres of power and development centred on the Eurasian continent.”
The document states that Russia will continue to develop a particularly privileged strategic partnership with India in order to strengthen and expand cooperation in all areas on a mutually advantageous basis. Russia will place special emphasis on boosting bilateral trade, bolstering investment and technological ties, and ensuring their resistance to divisive actions of unfriendly states and their alliances.
Russia intends to prioritise strengthening the capacity and international role of the BRICS interstate association, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the RIC (Russia, India, China), and other interstate associations and international or regional organisations in order to help adapt the global order to the realities of a multipolar world.
India and Russia have been strong allies and partners for a very long time.
Russia has been India’s main source of weaponry, providing close to 50% of the country’s total arms imports between 2016 and 2020.
In light of the conflict in Ukraine, sanctions-hit Russia has seen an increase in oil imports from China and India as well.
India has remained impartial about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which would have been ongoing for a year as of February 24. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has argued for a diplomatic solution to the conflict, nevertheless.
