Russia's Indian "Triumph" became a "click on the nose" of the Americans

Against the background of the talks between the presidents of Russia and the United States, a completely different foreign policy event “went into the shadows” to a certain extent, which had for our country no less, and perhaps even more, than the virtual “summit” of Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden. The visit to India of the top leaders of the most important domestic departments and of Vladimir Vladimirovich himself was completely undeservedly ignored, which was marked by rather serious successes achieved in the development of relations with this country, which today plays a huge role both in its region and throughout the world.

Is it an accident that this event took place just on the eve of the "direct line" between Washington and Moscow? It is simply impossible to believe in such a thing, because coincidences of this kind in the geopolitical "games" waged by the superpowers are excluded by definition. Of course, a very specific signal was sent to the United States, and with a meaning that they clearly did not like. Let's try to figure out what exactly it was, and at the same time to assess more broadly the significance of the "Indian breakthrough" that Russia managed to carry out.

"Triumph" and Kalashnikov - in spite of the White House

Many experts, assessing the results of the visit of the Russian delegation to New Delhi, unequivocally put at the forefront the colossal success that was achieved in its process in the field of military-technical cooperation between the two countries. Yes, the results in this area are more than impressive. On the other hand, this is not something new at all, but simply a successful continuation and development of those "developments" that were made earlier. Recall - the contract for the supply of India with the S-400 Triumph air defense system was signed back in 2018, during the previous visit of Vladimir Putin to New Delhi. Another question is that it could not have reached the stage of practical implementation. And the point is not only in the traditional sanctions "for the purchase of Russian weapons", which Washington immediately began to threaten, but in the much more cunning and large-scale actions of the United States. In this case, they chose not to go ahead, acting rudely and assertively, as was the case with Turkey, but tried to offer India an alternative in the form of their own arms supplies and not only them alone.

In fact, New Delhi was faced with the choice of a country for a global military-technical and strategic partnership. At the same time, geopolitical realities did not allow him and does not allow him to "remain in splendid isolation", moving away from a close "connection" with Washington or Moscow. Specifically, the increasingly tense relations with China, which is rapidly building up its military power and influence in the region. For some time it seemed that the Americans were "outplaying" our country and that it would soon have to lose the huge Indian arms market. However, in practice, everything turned out to be exactly the opposite.

Our Indian partners, in spite of the explicit and covert pressure exerted on them, in spite of the promises and persuasions of the overseas "friends", did not abandon the deal that brought them so many problems. The deliveries of the S-400 have already begun and will continue in accordance with the agreements reached earlier. Moreover, just a year after their conclusion "on the sidelines" of the Eastern Economic Forum held in Vladivostok, Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed defense contracts totaling $ 14 and a half billion. And now - new steps: a contract was signed to supply the Indian army with Kalashnikov assault rifles, as well as to localize their production at local defense enterprises (as happened earlier with Igla-S MANPADS). The total amount of the transaction is at least $ 600 million, but the matter is not only and not so much about money. Could advertising be better for our AK-203 than the selection of it as the main small arms by the army, which has the second largest in the world?

At the same time, it is perfectly understandable that such close cooperation in the defense sphere "ties" the countries participating in it, not only to the Russian military-industrial complex. It is not without reason that both Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov took part in the 2 + 2 talks in New Delhi. Moscow's main task today is not to sell more machine guns, missiles, or, say, aircraft to India. It is critically important to prevent this country from becoming a vassal of Washington and, moreover, into a military counterbalance to our country's other most important ally, China. But certain steps, and very serious ones, by the way, have already been taken in this direction. That is just one participation of New Delhi in QUAD - "Quadripartite Dialogue on Security", the other participants of which are Australia, the United States and Japan.

What will "outweigh" - QUAD or SCO and BRICS?

This organization has a completely unambiguous anti-Chinese orientation. Yes, by and large, and to the friends of Russia, the states that are part of it, too, no one will dare to name it. Its creation was only the first step by Washington to cobble together militarypolitical alliances aimed at every possible opposition to Beijing. The next step was AUKUS, which clearly caused not enthusiasm in New Delhi, but serious concern. American transfer of nuclear weapons to Australia of technologies and the rearmament of its navy on nuclear submarines can hardly please any of the sane neighbors of this state. India today declares its "distance" from AUKUS and claims that it participates in QUAD exclusively from the point of view of its own economic interests.

Nevertheless, it is perfectly clear that having the Celestial Empire in its neighbors, the contradictions with which are no longer limited to long-standing border disputes and territorial claims, this country desperately needs guarantees of its own security and partners on whom it could count on in the event of a sharp exacerbation of the conflict. with Beijing. At least - as a mediator and "arbitrator". However, the United States is essentially offering its Indian "partners" something completely different: they call them "friends against." Against China, but it is perfectly clear that against Russia too. At the same time, the possible prospect of an armed conflict between the two huge countries escalating into a full-scale war, which, in practice, will inevitably result in an exchange of nuclear strikes, worries Washington insofar as - like everything that happens in the other hemisphere. The possible damage that the Chinese comrades (and the Indians too) will suffer in this case clearly outweighs everything else in his eyes.

Russia's position, naturally, is fundamentally different. The Indian-Chinese clash not only in no way can meet any of its interests (both openly declared and secret), it is simply disastrous for them. What we still lacked was the immersion of a whole huge region, directly adjacent to our borders, into a war hell and the ensuing total chaos with all the ensuing nightmarish consequences. Moreover, even a peaceful confrontation between the two great Asian powers is not beneficial to us, because it leads to situations in which we will have to choose between our two most important partners. In this case, any choice will be unambiguously in favor of the United States. Alas, it is still premature to talk about the prospects of India's inclusion in the gradually emerging group of states with a more or less pronounced anti-American foreign policy agenda.

There are many reasons for this, and we will name just one of them. Trade between the United States and India over the past two years amounted to approximately $ 80 and a half billion. At the same time, in relation to our country, this figure is much more modest - it is expected to increase to $ 30 billion a year only by 2025. Yes, concrete steps in this direction are being made right now - from the beginning of this year to September, the volume of Russian-Indian trade operations increased by 38% and amounted to $ 8.8 billion. However, the numbers, as we can see, are completely incomparable. But in the modern world, politics, as everyone knows, stems primarily from the economy. Automatic machines, but as long as Washington remains New Delhi's main partner in this aspect, it will be very, very problematic to significantly reduce its influence.

Be that as it may, but both Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi, after lengthy face-to-face negotiations (they took one and a half times longer than the conversation between our president and the American), announced that the countries they lead are returning to the regime “especially privileged strategic partnership ”. Was it a kind of "click on the nose" of Joe Biden, who was preparing for negotiations with Vladimir Vladimirovich at that time, whose administration made and is making great efforts to achieve success in the "Indian direction"? What do you think ?!

Generally speaking, old Joe should be purely humanly offended: Xi Jinping personally invited Putin to the Olympics, but he was not invited at all. Vladimir Vladimirovich himself communicates with him via video link, and he came to the Indian leader, so to speak, "in the flesh" (and this was our leader's second trip abroad in the last two years), which also has its own unambiguous subtext. The first time our president went to a rendezvous with Biden in Geneva, but now ... Have the priorities changed? Perhaps, yes. The United States, no matter how hard it was for them to realize and admit it, ceases to be the "center of the universe", the state around which every single serious geopolitical "alignment" "revolves".

Vladimir Putin's visit and his more than successful negotiations with Modi demonstrate the realities of the new multipolar world in all its glory. Before the Russian-American summit, which everyone initially saw as a "difficult" conversation, it was simply necessary to arrange such a demonstration. Realizing perfectly well that Washington will try to reduce the entire dialogue to the issues of "the territorial integrity of Ukraine", fairly correcting them with bargaining around the fate of "Nord Stream 2", Moscow very aptly reminded the local "wise men" that the world is not limited to Europe and the "post-Soviet space" ... And even more so, her vital interests and foreign policy opportunities.