On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to make landfall in New Delhi for the 21st annual India-Russia summit. This will coincide with the first “two-plus-two” dialogue between their respective foreign and defence ministers patterned on a similar exercise that India has had with the United States since 2018.
This will, therefore, not be your usual summit between the two leaders, but an in-depth strategic dialogue between the two countries featuring key areas of foreign and defence policies. In the current context, besides issues relating to Russia and India, the two sides are likely to take up the developments in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. India would seek greater clarity on the China-Russia relationship, while the Russians will, no doubt, want to get a clearer idea of the Indo-US interaction.
It is not clear whether New Delhi would like to broach the issue of Russian intentions towards Ukraine. Last month, Prime Minister Modi met President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on the sidelines of the COP26 summit in Glasgow.
The US and western sources are alleging that Russia has imminent plans to attack Ukraine. Should that happen, it would be a tectonic event and New Delhi may find itself in an extremely awkward place between Moscow and Washington DC.