The public sentiment regarding India-Russia relations is generally positive, reflecting appreciation for the historical partnership, particularly highlighted by Shashi Tharoor's diplomatic role. However, concerns about geopolitical complexities involving Pakistan and China's rising influence alongside skepticism about the reliability of international alliances are prevalent. Comments display pride in India's diplomatic efforts and highlight the importance of prioritizing national interests in foreign policy.

India

Russia

Pakistan

So, what shall we do?

Trump k name ka pandara road par temple banwa le?

Longjumping_Fee_1490

We should concentrate on how these things affect Indians in India, not around the world.

Blissfully_Wholesome

Nbc, wired, aljazeera :D they are all known propaganda spreading sites themselves... trolls are here in India itself who bad mouth India and even larger in numbers than russians..  


Russia and India have cultural, trade, defence, space and many such instance with people to people connect. Our relationship is time tested and strategic.
India is open to dialogue and diplomacy  towards all nations and works for mutual benefit. 

TheBuzzKnightRises

I don't buy into the notion that any country with an independent foreign policy can be "Friends" with any other country. Sometimes there are common goals that they can work together and that's it. Russia is not our friend, neither is France or Israel or pretty much anybody.

resolve_1987

Matlab saaf he, ‘’begani shadi me abdullah banna bandh karo’’🙏

Haan_SOLO27

No one is anyone's friend. It is geo politics and country specific policies to maintain good relations ..

Zealousideal-Part849

Russia is a far more dependable friend than the US. And you can blame bot farms up to a certain extent, but nations gotta take responsibility.

AgentOfDibella

In Geo-politics you have the stand you take in the public eye. Then there is the more subtle positioning you take with friends who will understand (France in India's case here). Then there is the stand you take with the adversary behind six closed doors where both sides show some but not all their cards and say ok here's the deal if...then this...but if...then this etc. Our EAM has walked the thin edge with great tact. It is not for us to fall for Western bullying or threatening of the calamities that might befall us if we don't toe the line {sanctions, exports, CATSA}. You don't win with bullies by giving in to them whether the bully is USA or China or Russia.

An identical situation from recent history -- In December 1979 USSR put enormous pressure on us to vote in their favour at the UN over their dastardly invasion of Afghanistan. We had an even more thin line to walk then. The US threatened us with calamitous sanctions if we voted for USSR. We abstained with reasoning that kept both sides satisfied. That is what geo-politics is - always your own interests first. We don't know what back channel discussions are going on between Russia &amp; USA, between USA and India/China as neutral arbiters and Russia. So what we read in the media is a tip of the iceberg. For example in February 1980, two months after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, USA accepted that a neutral India served its interests better to keep one more channel of communication open to Brezhnev. In private Mrs. Indira Gandhi expressed utter horror to Andrei Gromyko {Soviet Foreign Minister} of the atrocities the Soviets were committing in Afghanistan {they had gunned down school girls protesting the invasion} and that this would affect India's stand with them in private. So we as ordinary consumers of the press really don't know what happens behind the scenes.

Just because the West is putting pressure on us is no reason to line up with them. Sometimes we line up {Iran} sometimes we don't {Ukraine}. With Russia &amp; earlier USSR what is also at stake is a 69-year old relationship of unbroken trust - *trust is a rare gem in geo-politics*. It is not to be thrown away just like that.

Even China is not always our enemy though on most counts it is. There are issues, like climate change, where we will find ourselves on the same side, matters such as Hong Kong where we will stay neutral and others well known where we will oppose then with vigor.

CrimeMasterGogoChan

"There are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests." So we are alone.

That being said Russia &gt;&gt; USA. There is no comparison.

I would put USA on the same level as China. Both are snakes which are looking for any opportunity to degrade India's growth. They both want India to be subservient and their lackey in the current Sino - US cold war.

eriek_halenx

So? Do you think an average indian has much communication with Russians?

PersonalRun712

[deleted]

Also immigration to Russia by Indian young people which has become a thing recently, , may be a fast track to rhe Ukranian front lines. Russia is a liability in some ways and only Ambani is profiting from the oil trade.

radicallyobjective

No country has friends in real life.There are just associations of countries based on money and common enemies and even that isn't absolute.


Some people who indians hate like middle easterners are actually kind to indians ( if you came through legal route).Some people like israelis and Russians who some indians consider best friends are actually very racist to indians and consider us racially inferior.

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Why does putin look like someone wearing a putin mask?

discova

When the other "friend" option is an orange pedophile felon.....

ZeroKarma6250

Classic diplomatic optics. Birthdays aside, it’s really about signaling that India values its strategic relationship with Russia, especially with all the global tensions right now.

NextNorth9041

Atak2022

Just in case anyone was still on the fence about Modi being a PoS...

HandsomeHeathen

Putin is one year older.  Hence, Putin is one year closer to his eventual demise from old age, illness or assassination (not likely this one).

macross1984

Russia and India relationship will balance the dynamics of unilateral sanctions by the US and Europe.

Hot-Calendar9204

Let's see about those ties when russia has no oil left to sell. 

Hope they like oil fumes

send-ramenSeasoning

Interesting_Pie9489

It's almost like when Billy Crystal met Meg Ryan

Majestic-Collar-2675

Have fun getting your people sent to the meat grinder, Modi.

shocked-clam

Yo, politics aside, gotta give props to Modi for staying cordial w/ Putin. Still, real talk tho, can’t help but wonder what's cooking behind the scenes lol

PastaPuss

1971 is what set the stage for South Asian geopolitics. America’s intervention on behalf of Pakistan left a bitter taste in the rulers of a country that were already wary of unbridled capitalism.

Accordingly, they turned to Russia (USSR) for their military needs. From India’s perspective, Russia is probably the friendliest country they have in their unstable neighborhood. 

Pair that feeling with military needs, American and Chinese support for Pakistan along with a long standing relationship spanning decades and you will get your answer.

Make no mistake though, Indians and Russians are well aware that the relationship has an underlying transactional nature with no expectations of any military support, in terms of deployments, in case of a war.

Couple of factors: 

India was very interested in the decolonisation rhetoric of the USSR in the 1950s/60s, which was also a time when the economic growth of the USSR suggested that Communism was a viable economic model. And while India didn’t adopt Communism, it painted the USSR in a good light as a trade partner. This began a continuing pattern of engagement.

Of course the USA also espoused decolonisation in the 1950s. But then the US made some pivotal choices (arguably only half thought through) that soured Indian relations. These included strong US ties with the ex-colonial masters the British, and US support of NATO ally Portugal against India in the Goa crisis. The US also took too long to understand the intractable nature of the India-Pakistan intransigence. Because of this the US engagement with Pakistan (including via CENTI/METO hurt relations with India more than US support of India ever helped). 

India also has a strong history of non-alignment. This has usually expressed itself as not taking sides, and disliking countries trying to dictate to it (but then what country likes being dictated to). But it also means India rarely cuts itself off even from bad actors. So India’s ongoing engagement with Russia can be seen more of a ‘business as usual’ arrangement, than some sort of anti-West position.

As for India and China, India first recognised the PRC government in the 1950s before China attacked India in the Sino-Indian War. But the war between India and China did not lead to India reversing its by then long standing position on recognition - as India thought denying the status of a power as large and present to them as China was unrealistic. But neither this did not stop India agreeing at the same time to the Friendship Treaty with the USSR in 1971 (in a context of the 1969 Sino-Soviet split and rapprochement between China and the USA). 

So the short answer is Indian relations with other countries are often complicated, but rarely neatly tessellate into wider global blocs.

Young_Lochinvar

India plays every side apart from China &amp; Pakistan, who are their only geopolitical rivals/threats. They see Russia as a useful hedge against China. A strong Russia means China will have less time &amp; resources to focus on India, a weak Russia runs the risk of becoming a Chinese vassal state.

AtomicMonkeyTheFirst

What do you mean by \`every-time' ?   
I've never come across a post where every point is factually wrong.   
  
The US supported Pakistan in the 65 and 71 wars, ignoring Pakistan's genocide against its own people in 1971 (the US Consul general's term, not mine) and sent its aircraft carrier to intimidate India in 1971. 

The US did not deploy any aircraft carrier in 1962, or restrain Pakistan. Nor did India buy any   
advanced fighter jets, or radar from the US after 1962. In fact we never have.   
India turned to the USSR before the1971 war, since the US was supporting Pakistan. 

The US has not \`recently' provided access to India, to its markets (or restrained its own companies). The US was always a mostly free market for the last century. 

India bought Russian oil because there was no choice. The US sanctioned Iran, then Venezuela.   
The US Ambassador to US has gone on record to say that India's buying Russian oil stabilized the world price and the US saw nothing wrong in it - a lot of that oil was refined and sold to Europe, with Europe's support.   

India has a strong relationship with the West, notwithstanding Trump's recent actions.   
India has not supported Russia on any UN vote pertaining to the Ukraine war. 

I'm not clear what you're trying to say in the rest of the post.

Dean_46

When has it? India supports indias interest. Its great to see

bluecheese2040

Before Trump II, I think the western strategy was precisely for India to profit from Russia having to sell its oil at wholesale prices. Must have been so confusing for Modi and his people when Trump suddenly accused them of circumventing sanctions. 

Other than that, Pakistan and Ukraine have had quite good relations and Ukraine used to sell weapons to Pakistan, so Ukraine doesn't have a good standing in India. In any case, India never chose sides in the longterm, it usually did what benefitted its own interests and those were usually most aligned with the Thord world / global south. If any power has a useful deal to offer, India won't decline just on principle or because of some steady alliance.

GibDirBerlin

Indians only care about their interests as they should. They see Russia as a good ally and a counter to China. They also understand that the Russians won't allow their Chinese neighbour to expand too much in India. There's a realpolitik reason other than moral principles to stop your neighbours from expanding too much so that they don't become too powerful to become a threat to you. A historical example is in Italy during the renaissance where city-states and small kingdoms would unite to fight those who expand (I read about it when I was reading about Machiavelli's life).

Some will criticise the Indians for choosing interests over principles by allying with the "evil" Russia but the same is true for the USA and every Western country as they choose interests over principles all the time. It's just that the latter has this attitude where they can choose their interests over principles but demand everyone else but themselves and their allies to choose principles over interests when it suits them. Why would the Indians or anyone agree to this?

The US has stabbed India in the back many times in the past. Open a history book.

ForeignExpression

This thread is filled with Indian nationalists who are listing off their grievances with the West. They don't have a good answer but only nationalist emotions as the Indian government teaches Indians from very young that "Russia is their best friend".

The answer to your question is very deep corruption. Russian oligarchs directly tied to the Russian state make a lot of money with powerful Indian businessmen who directly influence the Indian government. This has become much more obvious since 2022.

The only time India-Russia relations weakened was in the 90s when Russia was pro-West and felt more inclined to resist corrupt deals with the Indian elite since lack of corruption was tied to recieving Western aid.

Still_There3603

When India and Pakistan split the US wanted to be friends with both sides.  Neither India or Pakistan wanted that because that situation was still pretty hot.

The US chose Pakistan because they were closer to the USSR and agreed to let the US install an ICBM early warning listening post there which could detect launches from Kazakhstan.   The USSR then cozied up to India using it as a avenue to disseminate disinformation into English speaking news outlets.

That's it.  Pakistan could assist in nuclear strike warning detection and India couldn't.  Typical cold war stuff.

Eisenhower later said it was one of the worst choices he had to make.

MysteriousDatabase68

This looks like another revisionist history mumbo jumbo by Americans. West always good and others bad.

Bowmic

There are many reasons given in the history of India, WHY India supports Russia?  
One of the popular reasons  i suggest that the Average indian had trusted Russia more than America "The 1971 India-Pakistan war, also known as the Bangladesh liberation war,"  
Recently, consider the Fact that Russian Made S-400 has protected india Air base and many states of india from Pakistani terrorist missiles and American-made F-16 .

Kingsalyer_09

Russia is India's only guaranteed veto in the security council. This is a great simplification. But it's the main reason why they can't afford to alienate Russia.

VegetaFan1337

PlatinumStrife

If anyone was struggling to properly translate that it's "we really need India to keep buying our oil cause we are so screwed without you"

RequirementAwkward26

This is true - India since Independence has always had positive dealings with Russia possibly to counter China) even when it was staunchly non-aligned during the 1st Cold War.

Frisbeeperth

Like Trump, Putin always have that grinn on his face, as he's about to burst out laughing, that anyone actually believes his bullshit.

Super_Mag

One authoritarian speaking about another.

TechnicalCut2208

Then why is he selling Russian jet engines for Pakistan's JF17?

vivs007

Putin would fuck any country over in a heartbeat. He is in love with himself.

alrighty66

Well can’t complain about big countries becoming friends eh? Maybe the world largest democracy can rub off on the Russians a bit

88keys0friends

Yeah we know what's good f you for india, piss off we don't need a criminal to tell what's good.

Chocolate_Milk99

I've never seen an American president who destroyed the relationship with allies as Trump did.

I think his governing attitude is "let's make America even weaker"

Positive_Car8143

Idk why but i feel ki that day modi, putin, trump and maybe also China ka pm; these people had something fishy discussion and plan

heyitsme5722

Ukraine blew his oil refinery, he gotta refine it somewhere

ElFlitz

hardquoter

MyNameIsNotKyle

Oh, you mean like how Ukraine is fighting for its independence?

Big-Illustrator7575

Motor_Instance5278

I still think Trump policies pushing India away was dumb. Pakistan is not a reliable ally in that region. He purposely weakens Europe and the allies or he is truly dumb enough to push India away from the US. 

You place India, China and Russia together are stronger than US allies in that region.

Willstdusheide23

Translation: Russian agriculture isn’t doing well and they’re also having trouble with medical supplies.

qlohengrin

If Modi was wise, he would check Putins credit score, before he gives russia a bunch of stuff they won’t pay for and that he took away from his own starving population.

Prestigious_Cold_756

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reaffirmed India's strategic partnership with Russia amidst geopolitical tensions, discussing various sectors of cooperation.

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