... the indestructible bedrock of bilateral relations, is going through a period of severe stress. Over the last five years, Russia’s share of Indian defense imports went down from 60% to 45% and is likely to shrink even further in the near future. Moscow has to confront the rapid expansion of the Western presence in the Indian arms markets and the current "Made in India" strategy pursued by the Indian leadership. On top of that, there are questions in India about the reliability of Russian weapons, Russia’s compliance with delivery deadlines and the after-sales ...
... from Western pressure. That expectation was abruptly shattered, however, after India decisively intervened to preemptively avert that scenario by becoming Russia’s alternative valve from such pressure as evidenced by its astronomical consumption of discounted oil from that Great Power as well as its proactive efforts to comprehensively expand trade ties with it in order to replace lost Western ones.
India’s Balancing Act
This game-changing development completely altered the forecast that many analysts had and thus compelled them to recalibrate their predictions about the forthcoming dynamics of the global systemic transition to multipolarity. ...