Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi smile during the inauguration of World Diamond Conference in New Delhi December 11, 2014. Reuters (file)Washington is not happy with the big economic and strategic deals firmed up between India and Russia during Russian president Vladimir Putin's visit earlier this month. Russia has climbed back to the top of the enemy countries for United States and European union following annexation of Crimean peninsula in Ukraine by Putin. Both have imposed sanctions on Russia, but India as a matter of long term policy supports only sanctions imposed by the United Nations.
The three big deals involve import of Russian petroleum in big quantities for the next ten years, purchase of 12 nuclear reactors and transfer of high technology for Indian defence programme. All these make India a bigger customer for Russian exports, while Putin has given a general commitment that he will import more goods from India. Earlier China has also agreed to buy large quantities of Russian oil. The oil deal is important for Putin because Russian economy which is dependent on huge oil and gas exports to western Europe has been hit hard by both the falling oil prices and the reduced demand by its western neighbours. United States is pumping oil equivalent to that of Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer, and Norway is recovering more oil from North Sea to feed western Europe.
The strategy of United States and its allies to reduce dependence on the volatile Middle East and Leftist countries is causing a big crisis for Venezuela, which under Hugo Chavez had waved a fist at Washington. Chavez's successor Nicolas Maduro finds it difficult to manage a huge trade imbalance as the country had not developed manufacturing or infrastructure and is hugely dependent on imports. Plus Chavez had spent money on supporting Leftist governments of Cuba, Nicaragua and other regional neighbours without a worry about tomorrow.
Putin has also taken a march over countries like France, South Korea and United States by clinching the deal for 12 nuclear reactors. This is a result of the deep frustration of the nuclear energy department about the delays in United States operationalising the civil nuclear deal with India, which was initiated in 2005 and was completed in 2010. United States has serious misgivings on the nuclear liability law passed under opposition pressure during the Manmohan Singh regime, but Modi has not revealed whether he has given any secret assurances to Putin on the liability of Russian reactor manufacturers if there is any nuclear accident. Modi has hugged the Russian bear because Moscow for the first time in the 67 years has gone for a defence framework agreement with Pakistan, which was seen by the Indian establishment as a pressure tactic for India looking at the west for planes and other high technology defence items.
But the senior officials in Modi government are not worried about Obama frowning on India. they point out that United States had strongly pressurised India to support the sanctions imposed against Iran for its nuclear programme, but India had stuck to the middle path. It had voted only once against Iran in the international atomic energy agency as India did not want nuclear proliferation in the neighbourhood. Now the officials say that United States has become closer to Iran after the rise of the Islamic State. However all eyes are on Washington to see how Obama scripts his India visit in January.
Tailpiece: After persuading Chinese president Li Xinping to visit his home state Gujarat, now Modi has extended an invitation to Obama to look at Varanasi, Modi's parliamentary constituency. It would be a public relations coup if Obama agrees.
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