05 December 2011

Editorial: India Eyes Privileged Partner Poll

By Richard Weitz

India will have been paying close attention to parliamentary elections in Russia. The two countries have plenty of shared defense, strategic and nuclear interests.

Indians will have been following today’s parliamentary elections in Russia more attentively than most Asian nations. The Indian-Russian partnership has remained surprisingly durable, despite all the changes since the end of the Cold War. India still acquires the bulk of its weapons from Russian arms sellers, while the two governments’ foreign policy goals aren’t normally in conflict and often coincide. For example, both worry about the potential of the Taliban to return to power in Afghanistan after NATO troops leave the country in a few years. Indeed, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev now refers to their bilateral relationship as a “privileged strategic partnership.”

Read the full story at The Diplomat