With Russia President Dimitri Medvedev's two day visit to India that concluded today, India has hosted the leaders of all 5 permanent powers in the UN Security Council.
British PM David Cameron started things off during the summer, Barack Obama came following his party's shellacking in the November midterm elections and now in rapid succession during December Nicolas Sarkozy, Wen Ji Bao and finally Medvedev have come courting. Each visit has concluded with headlines of boosted bilateral trade and deals totaling billions. These visits and their results have again underlined India's status as a rising superpower with an appetite for civilian and military technology as well as India's desire to diversify its economic partners and military suppliers.
Medvedev came to India with two advantages: One is the longstanding relationship between the Soviet Union and its Russian successor and India and the second is the absence of the Pakistani handicap. The Soviet Union forged a close relationship with India beginning with the mid 1950s when the Soviet Union took notice of the neutral bloc as a major force in international affairs. One of the neutral bloc's major leaders was then-Indian Prime Minister Jarawahal Nehru who also favored a socialist economy for India. The Soviet Union became India's major arms supplier (and remains so to this date) and also supplied major economic assistance such as building complete steel mills to assist Indian industrialization.
The cozy Indo-Soviet relationship perturbed China that as a Communist country felt it deserved preference in aid. When border disputes erupted between China and India, the Soviet Union adopted pro-Indian neutrality. Soviet Indian relations thus became a factor in the split between the two Communist powers in the 1960s. The Soviet Union then relied on India to help contain China.
Another Russian asset is the absence of a parallel relationship with Pakistan. The United States and China have had to balance their relations with India by displaying similar solicitude for India's rival or enemy depending on the circumstances. Wen, after leaving India, visited Pakistan to display continued Chinese friendship (it was Pakistan that served as the interlocutor between China and the United States before the two countries resumed ties). The United States needs Pakistan for the war in Afghanistan despite indications that the Pakistani government or at least its intelligence services have been playing a double game.
Medvedev (as did Sarkozy a few weeks back) condemned Pakistani support for terrorism. "In their joint statement India and Russia strongly condemned countries supporting terrorism and…both sides noted that states that aid, abet or shelter are as guilty of acts of terrorism as their actual perpetrators. India and Russia also discussed the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, and both sides concluded that a successful stabilization of Afghanistan would be possible only after the elimination of safe havens and infrastructure for terrorism and violent extremism that are present in Afghanistan and Pakistan."
Medvedev also matched Obama's call that India be awarded a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. China has sought to preserve its role as Asia's sole representative amongst UNSC permanent members.
The success of the visit was mirrored in the contracts signed. Industrializing India wants energy and it will get it from Russia. India’s state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp. wants to take part in the development of Russia’s massive Trebs and Titov oil and gas sources in northwest Russia . Russia will supply India with nuclear reactors as India hopes to increase its output in that sector 15 fold by 2032.
Sarkozy's visit also concluded with the sale of reactors.
The most eye-catching contract illustrative of the 'privileged strategic partnership' (since strategic partnerships are now a dime a dozen, "privileged strategic partnership" sets them above the crowd) was the agreement to jointly build a fifth generation fighter jet with stealth capabilities. Russia originally wanted to ship a completed plane India wants refinements for its air force. The two sides also signed space cooperation agreements.
Russia would like to emulate India's success in the software industry and therefore, in addition to Delhi and Mumbai, the Medvedev visit included a visit to Bangalore, the capital of India's Silicon Valley.