Rendezvous with Russia

Comparisons are odious, yet inevitable. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his team have had to constantly contend with the shadow of William Jefferson Clinton during their four-day Indian sojourn, since a bare six months separated this high-powered visit from that of the US president8217;s. But let it be said for the record that while a certain electricity characterised Clinton8217;s March visit, it is chemistry which marks Putin8217;s. He can go home knowing that his trip has acted as an adhesive, which has significantly consolidated an old tie that was fraying at the seams. India, on its part, can draw satisfaction over the new note of equality that now marks Indo-Russian ties. This was not Big Brother Ivan who had come a-visiting but rather a concerned global player, albeit a one-time superpower, with preoccupations similar to that of this country. A much needed correction of perspective, this. As has been stated in these columns earlier: Russia needs India as much, if not more, than India needs Russia.

Putin, to his credit, made no bones about acknowledging this. In his address to Parliament on Wednesday, he took great care to emphasise that in Asia, India remained preeminent as far as Russian foreign policy was concerned and that Moscow8217;s ties with other countries in the region were without prejudice to India. This was done possibly to address Indian apprehensions over Russian overtures to Pakistan. While Putin is not visiting Islamabad himself, he has taken care to sent his Chechnyan representative, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, to talk to the Pakistanis about Afghanistan-based training camps for Chechen rebels. Simmering hostilities in Chechnya are clearly an important preoccupation for the man who harbours ambitions of suppressing all seccessionist tendencies within his country and rebuilding Russia as a strong global force once again. Here, too, India with its own well-stated position on global, especially Pak-Afghan-centric terrorism, fits well into the Putin gameplan. This was what provoked that calculatedaside, during his address to the Indian Parliament, about the 8220;true and verified information8221; he had that the forces behind acts of terrorism in the Philippines, Kashmir or Kosovo were all the same. Wednesday8217;s overarching declaration on Strategic Partnership Document, reiterated this convergence of opinion at least on Afghanistan and the need to tackle terrorism head on.

Expanding commercial ties was again a common aspiration, not in the language of the rupee-rouble trade of yore but in terms of a rapidly globalising world. Interestingly, Putin did not hesitate to hardsell Russia as an attractive investment destination to the captains of Indian industry, a land where old bureaucracies had been dismantled and infrastructure refurbished. For India, in terms of actual spin-offs, the defence deals, valued at 3 billion, were arguably the most significant. Many of them, like the acquisition of the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov8217; and the Sukhoi-30 fighter jets, have been on the anvil for years, but this visit saw the crucial sealing and signing of the deals. The big challenge would lie in operationalising these complex treaties that involve, in certain instances, the transfer of technology and licensed production in this country. Here the bilateral Inter-governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation, headed by top functionaries in both governments, should go someway towards ensuring both transparency and efficiency. A new pragmatism now seems to mark an old relationship. That, ultimately, was the significance of the Putin visit.