Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit on December 6 was CEO style—he arrived around sunset and dashed straight into the summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, signed 28 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs), broke bread over a quick dinner and headed back to Moscow.
The summit went on expected lines. The military cooperation was extended for the next ten years, making it clear to any other Indian ally that the India-Russian friendship, and especially its military partnership, isn't going away anywhere, even if the world might be changing. A major, and expected, outcome of the summit was the agreement to manufacture AK-203 rifles for the Indian Army at the factory in Uttar Pradesh. As Harshvardhan Shringla, foreign secretary said at a post-summit briefing, India wants to up Make in India and Russia understands this need. Russia continues to be India's largest supplier of arms and military equipment, the total value of defence deals is around $16 billion.
One surprising omission in the agreements was the Reciprocal Exchange of Logistics (RELOS), which would give India access to far-flung Russian bases, including in the Arctic, thus allowing the Indian military to extend its range without having to tote the logistics along for it. India has such agreements with a few countries now, including the US, South Korea, France, Japan, Singapore and Australia. Shringla said that India has a few issues which have to be discussed further before RELOS can be inked.
The nine government to government agreements encompassed military cooperation, geosciences, shipping, culture and space. The remaining agreements were at the business to business level or between educational and research institutes. For instance, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara has tied up with Russia's Southern Federal University for student and faculty exchange. Delhi University has tied up with Skoltech University in Moscow for national technological development. Delhi University has also tied with IMSechenov First Moscow State Medical University to promote cooperation in nanomedicine, regenerative medicine, molecular medicine, bio-medical science, translational medicine, pre-clinical and clinical research, new drug disc.
Another interesting tie-up is with National Sports University in Imphal and Russian International Olympic University in Sochi.
The MoU on manpower supplies between Magic Billion and Volshebny Milliardovery, Industrial Technologies and Entrepreneurship should soon see Indian labour working in Russia's Far East, an area in which India has shown immense interest. Russia is short on manpower, especially in this region.
The MoUs may not seem like big-ticket ones, but the summit itself means a lot more than the sum of these agreements. It is the 21st such summit, itself significant of the strength of the ties. Putin has emerged from Russia only twice since the pandemic, his first outing being to meet the new US president Joe Biden in Geneva this summer. Having skipped all other international events, he chose to visit New Delhi, even if only for a few hours. The meet was already delayed by a year because of the pandemic. Even the body of the two leaders was significant. For once, Modi was the restrained one, extending a tentative handshake keeping in mind pandemic protocol. Putin however, reached out in an embrace. It is a Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership, after all.
The decision to have the 2+2 meeting of foreign and defence ministers was also significant. Government officials say a 2+2 with Russia is only natural given the intensity of the engagements. Given that India has established 2+2 with each of its Quad partners, having one with Russia was a message as well.
Shringla said that neither was CAATSA, the US sanction discussed, nor relationships with other countries, given that both follow independent foreign policies. They did discuss Afghanistan's humanitarian crisis, agreeing that the people needed help. The new Taliban government, however, remained out of the conversation. He noted that the S-400 anti-missile systems should get operational in India soon. He emphasised that this was a legacy contract, inked way back in 2018.
While India continues to woo Russia to join the International Solar Alliance and Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, the ongoing cooperation in the energy sector makes it clear that even as India works towards a net-zero climate goal, Russia will continue to be a provider for India's energy security.
