Reasons And Influencing Factors Of Russia-india Relations After The Cold War

Great changes of world geopolitics happened after radical change of EasternEurope and breakup of the USSR, so did Russia-India relations. As two powers,Russia and India had great influence on the world. In the period of cold war,Russia-India relations developed well, which became important alliance. Besidesoffered India a great deal of assistance on economic and military at the beginning,Russia cooperated with India in all aspects later on. In the early stage of the USSRbreakup, Russia’s national power was weakened so that Russia could not still maintainthe policy to India. Russia-India relations turned into short term stagnant.With geopolitics and international environment changes, Russia graduallystrengthened military cooperation with India so that the relations resumed anddeveloped. After the cold war, Russia-India relations gone through different periods:the first period is the transition period from1991to1993; the second one is thepositioning period from1993to2000; the third one is the strategic developing periodfrom2000to2008; the last one is the steady developing period after2008.Russia-India relations were defined as relationship of developing commercial andmilitary cooperation pragmatically in1992. From1993, Russia-India relationsdeveloped consistently, and both sides built friendly relationship of cooperation.Heads of two countries’ governments visited frequently and the level of military tradewas increased. In2000, Russia and India established strategic partnership andgradually steady and develop the relationship. Both sides developed military relationsfrom military trade to researching and developing weapons together. They alsostrengthened cooperation on economic. From2008, Russia-India relations developedsteady, on one hand, Russia and India strengthened cooperation on politic andeconomy and promoted the bilateral relations. On the other hand, Russia and Indiacontinued to extend military cooperation projects and made military cooperation planin ten years.Although Russia-India relations developed smoothly and steadily, it was alsoinfluenced by external and internal restrictive factors. There exist restrictive factorsincluding relatively backward economic relations, military trade frictions, US-Indiamilitary cooperation and so on that objectively influence Russia-India relations. At thepresent stage, favorable facts of Russia-India relations are greater than restrictive ones,so Russia-India relations will continue to move forward in short term. In the future, if Russia and India prepare to develop relations steady, they should not only increasemilitary trade, but also strengthen cooperation on economy. Only by improving bothcountries’ all-round cooperation on politic, military and economy can Russia-Indiarelations be steadier.