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Journalism of Courage
President Dmitry Medvedev has done well to dispel the growing misperception that Indo-Russian relations have lost their salience amidst Indias new warmth with the US and the West. Bringing up the rear of a long caravan of leaders visiting New Delhi in recent months,he underlined the enduring relevance of the Russian connection for India. If the 1990s were about salvaging the traditional ties with Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union,the last decade saw sustained efforts at injecting some substantive content into them. In signing 30 agreements ranging from nuclear and space cooperation to a variety of defence and business deals Delhi is sending out an important message. While its options have increased after forging a new bond with the US,a rising India is determined to preserve and strengthen its special relationship with Russia. On the eve of Medvedevs visit,there were tendentious reports that Moscow was wary of Indias deepening defence cooperation with the US. Russias support for Indias permanent membership of the UN Security Council was said to be weakening. There were also hints that Moscow was reaching out to Islamabad to compensate for its declining status in Delhi. The results from his visit,however,prove that India and Russia have chosen to hang together. The Russian leaders are realistic enough to recognise that in order to retain their historic standing in Delhi,they must adapt. On arms supplies,Russia has shown the political will to transform the old buyer-seller relationship into a defence industrial collaboration that emphasises joint development of weapons. That in turn has enormously increased Indias bargaining power with the US and European suppliers of advanced conventional weapons. Russia also continues to offer technologies and systems for example,nuclear submarines that the West is unwilling to consider. Dr Singh and Medvedev have also begun to address the one real weakness in bilateral relations on the trade and economic front. On the political front,Medvedev was unstinting in his endorsement of Indias case for a permanent seat on the UNSC. He was unambiguous in his demand that Pakistan must bring the perpetrators of 26/11 to book,and emphasised that Afghanistan cant be stabilised without eliminating the safe havens for terror in Pakistan. Medvedevs visit,then,not only marks the celebration of a privileged partnership built during the last decade but also lays out a framework for deeper engagement in the next.
