India and China are
both facing a war-like situation as the tensions on the border have
intensified. The question that arises among this chaos is, which country will
Russia side with since both of them have been close allies of the USSR in the
past?

Source: Tribune India

India’s Defense
Minister Rajnath Singh has gone to Russia on a three-day trip to meet the high
military officials of the country. Singh will also participate in the grand
military parade organized to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Soviet
victory over Nazi Germany in the second world war.

 

The visit of Rjanath
Singh is quite strategic as it comes immediately after China and India had a
clash in the Ladakh region.

 

Before leaving for
Russia, Singh tweeted, “Leaving for Moscow on a three-day visit. The visit to
Russia will give me an opportunity to hold talks on ways to further deepen the
India-Russia defense and strategic partnership. I shall also be attending the
75th Victory Day Parade in Moscow.”

 

Source: Twitter

The Indian military
officials say that even before the tension with China escalated, Singh was
scheduled to visit Russia because of their strong and historic military ties.

 

For many years now,
India has avoided all the important defense deals presented to it. They have
used financial excuses among others to deny the multi-utility helicopters that
were supposed to be built in India but the construction has not started since
2014.

 

Russia says, “If India
had these helicopters ready, then the soldiers who died due to lack of medical
help in the Galwan Valley could have been saved easily”.

 

Experts say that the
Indian government is the major cause of delay in these deals because many
investors from Russia had started to question the seriousness of the
authorities as far as the defense is concerned. Sukhoi and MIG aircraft are the
vital weapons of the Indian Air Force but due to their own reasons, the current
government has not given any heads up for buying these products.

Source: Hindu

If you dig deep into
the matter, you will realize that experts have posted a lot of reports on how
the US has warned India against doing any sort of arms or defense deals with
Russia and this has scared the financial sector of the country, especially
because they heavily rely on trade with America.

 

According to experts —
“The visit of the Defense Minister is also an opportunity to strengthen the
strategic partnership between the two countries, apart from the India-Russia
defense partnership”.

 

On the other hand, some
experts believe that Russia is a weak power now and it needs China’s support to
survive in case of any tension in the country. So, India should also understand
that Russia might not be able to openly side with its forces and the eventual
power will only rest with the US who can come and ask the forces in Beijing to
stop their operation in Ladakh.