India and Russia Relation
The foundation of the India-Russia relations was laid during the Cold War era. After the Cold War ended, the initial years of Boris Yeltsin's rule were not smooth. Otherwise, India and Russia have had a relationship that has nurtured as friction-free in the last many decades, with both nations having a strategic vision about each other for many years.
In the post-Cold War period, the relationship is strong but lacks direction, though officially, in 2000, India and Russia became strategic partners, reiterating a special and privileged partnership when Dmitry Medvedev visited in 2010.
Russia, however, is not comfortable with the growing Indo-US proximity. During the Cold War, defense ties were the most important elements of our relationship. In the post-Cold War era, the US, France, and Israel have emerged as direct competitors to Russia in providing defense supplies to India. In 2012, the two nations celebrated the 65th-anniversary of diplomatic relations and reaffirmed their cordial bilateral relations.
India Russia Diplomatic Relations During the Cold War
Though the Soviets did support India in 1959 when the Chinese adopted a hard-line position on the border, in 1962, during the Sino-Indian war, the Soviets stood along with the Chinese theory that the border between India and China is a colonial legacy.
To rectify this tilt, the Soviet Union, post the 1962 war, r support of arms to India which helped a lot in the 1965 war. Gradually, in the early 1970s, the world witnessed tectonic shifts, the most important of which was the US tilt towards China. This was perceived by the USSR as a threat to them. These events again led to mega-regional shifts.
India-Soviet Treaty of Peace and Friendship
In the 1970s, the US explored options of undertaking rapprochement with China, and India began to fear a Beijing Washington-Islamabad axis. Henry Kissinger did not send positive vibes to India and tried to make it dear that an Indo-Pak conflict could also come to involve China. India acted hastily.
Since 1969, India and the USSR were negotiating a diplomatic and strategic engagement. India speeded up the negotia Hons and in 1971, concluded a twenty-year India-Soviet Treaty of Peace and Friendship.
The treaty gave India the needed strategic support from Russia in any eventuality of conflict. Shipments of arms began to arrive from Russia to India. After the creation of Bangladesh towards the end of 1971, the India-Russia treaty acted as a great strategic stabilizer for India and the region as it deterred any Chinese or American intervention unfavorable to India.
The Soviets also vetoed the UN resolutions that advanced that India and Pakistan undertake a cease-fire. Soviet support successfully helped India to neutralize the external threats and helped it safeguard its territory.
After the 1971 war, when India conducted the nuclear test in 1974, the Soviets did not con damn it and, in fact, went on to support India with the supply of heavy water for the nuclear program that got halted when American and Canadians took back their supplies. India, on the other hand, also showed outright support to the Soviet Union. In 1979, when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, India
India Russia Diplomatic Relations Up To India's Independence
The origin of Indo-Russian ties in the modern era can be understood through the colonial prism. The period of the early nineteenth century saw the Russian Tsar expand to Central Asia. The British perceived this as a threat to the sovereignty of the British Indian Empire. The British were now determined to halt Russian advancement beyond Central Asia. In order to stop the same, the British started the Anglo-Afghan wars.The primary aim of the wars was to make regions in Afghanistan a buffer to protect the British Indian territory. The ultimately unfolding of the Great Game by the British and Russians would accept the British as the paramount power in Afghanistan. When the Russian and the British agreed to respect each other's interests, the Great Game concluded with the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. This revolution and the subsequently established Soviet Russian state distanced Russia from India. The leaders of the early Soviet Union were not keen on supporting the Indian National Movement.
The Russian leaders thought that the Indian national movement against British colonialism is a bourgeois-led movement and did not have strong revolutionary potential. They felt that a strong revolutionary impulse was needed to fight against imperial rule, which the Indians somewhat lacked. Further, as the Indian National Movement progressed, Russia got busy with their own internal concerns, as a result of which, up until the very end of the Second World War, India and Russia had very limited interaction.
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