India historical geopolitical partnership with Russia is now being tested. Today India is the world’s largest buyer of Russian military hardware accounting for 20% of Moscow’s orders. India has become the 3rd largest buyer of Russian oil at $24 billion dollars annually. But the reality of why India feels they need to work with Russia is far more complicated than you might imagine and it all has to do with their attempts to build an economy and military powerful enough to counter what they believe is their biggest threat. Their neighbor China.

Video Edited by: Michael Michaelides
Written by: Chris Cappy & Thomas Priddle

In order to understand India’s complicated relationship with Russia we need to recognize that this is nothing new. India has maintained political, economic and strategic ties with Moscow ever since the Cold War, something that Washington has been upset about. In fact the US is preparing a military aid package for India worth $500 million dollars. If this deal went through it would make India one of the largest recipients of US military aid, behind only Israel and Egypt. This is designed of course to curb India’s long historical reliance on Russian and soviet military equipment. Because even though India has close ties with Russia they are also considered a strong ally of the United States. And this is key to understanding India’s strategy. Of course Moscow is obviously upset about India’s close relationship with the United States. Apparently It’s considered controlling to tell your friends who they can and cannot be friends with.

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