Our old Friend USSR
Recent visit to India by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was also bestowed the honor of being the chief guest at the Republic Day parade, was marked with a stark sense of pragmatism from both ends. With recent overtures between India and US over nuclear issues, I did expect some kind of expression of dissatisfaction from the Russians but the Russians seem to have outdone the Americans by actually signing up a memorandum for 4 more nuclear reactors at Koodankulam.
After the breakup of Soviet Union, Russia has gained pre-eminence only now under the leadership of Putin. Putin has had a long and historic friendly relationship with India, right from his days of being a major public figure in St.Petersburg (known as Leningrad at that time). While Boris Yeltsin did not have much use for India and infact I.K.Gujral and Yeltsin had some worldly spats when they were the premiers, Putin understands the strategic importance of India.
Putin has also used Russia's energy abundance to chilling effects including threatening European Union as well as other central asian countries like Georgia and Ukraine. If there's a nation on earth that would be the envy of every other nation it has to be India. Forget the internal strife we have and the lack of infrastructure, the image of India in the minds of both US and Russia is one of a responsible nuclear state with a functioning democracy. The last piece of information is of no relevance to Putin and ofcourse US only pays lip service to democracy but those two words really speak a lot in international relations.
Sometimes it seems like India and Russia probably played the Americans by signing up a nuclear agreement with America but handing over a majority of nuclear work to Russia in exchange for energy resources in Russia. Who could fault either country if it really comes to this. America is not couring India without it's national interest in mind. It needs a good counter measure to the rising dragon. The year 2007 appears to be very promising for some interesting events in the foreign policy frontier for India. Let's watch and enjoy.
After the breakup of Soviet Union, Russia has gained pre-eminence only now under the leadership of Putin. Putin has had a long and historic friendly relationship with India, right from his days of being a major public figure in St.Petersburg (known as Leningrad at that time). While Boris Yeltsin did not have much use for India and infact I.K.Gujral and Yeltsin had some worldly spats when they were the premiers, Putin understands the strategic importance of India.
Putin has also used Russia's energy abundance to chilling effects including threatening European Union as well as other central asian countries like Georgia and Ukraine. If there's a nation on earth that would be the envy of every other nation it has to be India. Forget the internal strife we have and the lack of infrastructure, the image of India in the minds of both US and Russia is one of a responsible nuclear state with a functioning democracy. The last piece of information is of no relevance to Putin and ofcourse US only pays lip service to democracy but those two words really speak a lot in international relations.
Sometimes it seems like India and Russia probably played the Americans by signing up a nuclear agreement with America but handing over a majority of nuclear work to Russia in exchange for energy resources in Russia. Who could fault either country if it really comes to this. America is not couring India without it's national interest in mind. It needs a good counter measure to the rising dragon. The year 2007 appears to be very promising for some interesting events in the foreign policy frontier for India. Let's watch and enjoy.
posted by Karthik S at
7:25 PM
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