Rajnath Singh In Moscow At A Crucial Hour; Expected To Talk S-400, Other Equipment

NEW DELHI/MOSCOW: Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh left for Moscow, Russia on Monday morning. He will be on a three-day visit. In a tweet, RM Singh said that during his visit, he will hold talks on ways to further deepen the India-Russia defence and strategic partnership.

Leaving for Moscow on a three day visit. The visit to Russia will give me an opportunity to hold talks on ways to further deepen the India-Russia defence and strategic partnership. I shall also be attending the 75th Victory Day Parade in Moscow.

— Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) June 22, 2020

The Victory Parade will be held on Wednesday to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the victory in the Second World War. The Parade is organized to honour the heroism and sacrifices made by the Russian and other friendly people.

Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu had invited RM Singh to the Victory Parade, which was originally scheduled on the 9th of May but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Separately, a Tri-Service 75- Member Indian Military Contingent has already reached Moscow to participate in the Victory Parade along with Russian contingent and other invited contingents. The marching contingent taking part in the Victory Day Parade is led by a major rank officer of the gallant Sikh Light Infantry Regiment.

The Regiment had fought with valour in World War II and has a proud distinction of earning four Battle Honours and two Military Crosses amongst other gallantry awards.

The Indian participation in the Victory Day parade will be a mark of tribute to the great sacrifices made by Russia and other nations in the Second World War, in which Indian soldiers also participated and made supreme sacrifice. The visit of  Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is expected to strengthen the long-standing special and privileged strategic partnership between India and Russia.

Russia, India, China Trilateral Too:

Interestingly — interesting because of the circumstances elsewhere — the foreign ministers of Russia, India and China will be holding a virtual meeting on Tuesday.

With India and China going hard at each other — quite literally — at the LAC, it remains to be seen which way is Russia going to lean.

Will Moscow back its old friend India, or will it support China?

It is not going to be an easy choice for Russia.

China is Russia’s top trading partner. In 2018, the bilateral trade between the two countries stood at 108.3 billion dollars. To give a context to that statistic, it has to be noted that Germany, which is Russia’s second-biggest trade partner accounted for a trade worth 59.6 billion dollars — almost half.

When it comes to India, bilateral trade with Russia has been between 7 to 8 billion dollars for almost a decade now — just about a 12th of the China-Russia trade.

Moreover, Russia is also a part of China’s Belt and Road Project.

On the other hand, Russia is India’s largest defence supplier. Among the big-ticket deal is the USD 5.2 billion deal for S-400 missile defence systems.

In 2019, India also signed a deal worth 2 billion dollars for the T-90 tanks. The Akula class nuclear-powered submarine deal was worth 3 billion dollars. These are just a few examples.

India has historically been one of the closest allies of Russia. But Russia’s annexation of Crimea (originally a territory of Ukraine) led to international sanctions on Russia, which forced India too to adhere to many of the sanctions. Russia then began leaning ever more towards China.

Russia On Galwan:

Russia has assured its support to New Delhi when it comes to resolving issues with China. Russia’s Deputy Chief of Mission to India, Roman Babushkin, said, “we hope that the tensions will soon de-escalate.”

Russian media recent quoted presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying “China and India are Russia’s close partners and allies, and have close and mutually beneficial relations built on mutual respect.”

Moscow believes in a multi-vector foreign policy. It has tried to stay out of the US-China trade war, and when it comes to India-China stand-off too, Moscow is likely to play safe.

from League of India