It offers a notable contrast that India’s ties with Russia haven’t taken off despite New Delhi’s keenness while its relationship with the US has expanded notwithstanding hesitations.
Foreign policy is a strange terrain where even the best laid plans of nations have to be moulded and remoulded, constructed and deconstructed, depending on the plans of other actors. Much as nations would like to think that they have it all planned out, their friends and adversaries often end up surprising and challenging their long-held assumptions. Most of foreign policy, as a result, ends up not what nations plan for themselves, but what others end up doing to them. Policymakers may feel that they are in the driving seat, but more often than not, it is external factors that shape the trajectory of nations. Structural realities transcend personal predilections and ideological preferences.
India’s strategic community is emotional about Russia and there are good reasons for that. When the West shunned and ostracized India, then Soviet Union stood by India through thick and thin, providing strategic cover to New Delhi’s foreign policy aspirations. Bilateral ties between the two nations have withstood the test of time. Even after the demise of the Soviet Union, all Indian leaders since the end of the Cold War tried to maintain strong ties with Russia, hoping against hope that the Cold War romance could be rekindled. From Narasimha Rao to Narendra Modi, all invested in the relationship to ensure that the two nations could continue to work on areas of mutual interest.
Yet, the relationship has been on a downward spiral despite the best efforts of New Delhi. And it is primarily because of the choices that Russia has been making. Russia’s inability to emerge from its economic stasis, Tsarist ambitions on its periphery, cosying up to China, and more recently its aggression vis-à-vis Ukraine have all been exposing Russian strategic weaknesses and making a robust Russia-India partnership all the less likely. Many in the Indian strategic community wax eloquent about Russia’s strategic importance for India, but the relationship just refuses to take off for all the efforts being put in by Indian policymakers.
The India-US relationship, on the other hand, presents a striking contrast. Indian policymakers often talk about standing up to the US. It is a barometer of Indian strategic autonomy. Resisting American pressure, real or fictitious, is a badge of honour. Despite growing convergence with Washington ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Indian leadership has been wary of being seen as closely allied with the US. It took the threat of a prime ministerial resignation for Manmohan Singh’s party to rally behind him in support of the civil nuclear deal.
Source : https://www.orfonline.org/research/geopolitical-realities-may-yet-push-india-closer-to-nato