India-Russia Relations Research Under Modi Government

India and Russia see each other as “natural partners”,and S.Jaishankar has described their relationship as “enduring”.During the Cold War,Indian and Russia developed their relationship to a level which is “quasi-allies”.After the end of the Cold War,relations between the two countries experienced a brief cooling.A“strategic partnership”was quickly established in a very short period of time and as well upgraded it to a “special and privileged strategic partnership”in 2010.The entrenched and intimated bilateral relations in those two countries are regarded as a model for that between major powers.However,in the second decade of the 21 st century,the international geopolitical landscape has undergone profound changes.Especially in recent years,the "century-long change" is accelerating under the influence of multiple factors such as the spread of the new pneumonia epidemic,global geopolitical shocks,the struggling world economy,the obvious intensification of the great power game,and the loss of global governance.The changing world landscape has created a different or even opposite international strategic environment for India and Russia,pulling both countries to adjust their foreign strategies,which has a profound impact on the development of their relations.This article will analyze it using the theory of neoclassical realism.Through the analysis path of system-level independent variables,unit-level mediating variable,and dependent variables of state behavior,the motivations behind the new changes in India-Russia relations during the Modi administration are analyzed.This paper argues that the current international architecture puts India and Russia in a high-definition inclusive strategic environment and a high-definition binding strategic environment,respectively,and under the transmission of two national-level variables of strategic culture and leadership cognition,India and Russia have respectively adjusted their foreign strategies.After the adjustment of foreign strategy,the importance of India and Russia in the strategic goals of their respective powers has declined,coupled with the external traction of the United States and India and the deepening of cooperation between China and Russia,which has led to the weakening of India-Russia relations.The historical and practical basis of cooperation between India and Russia has kept the tone of friendly cooperation between the two countries in the short term.However,as the momentum of cooperation between the two countries weakens and the differences widen significantly,the relationship between the two countries will face difficult challenges.The trend of weakening India-Russia relations is bound to have a negative impact on the multilateral mechanisms for India-Russia coexistence,namely the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,the BRICS cooperation mechanism,and the China-India-Russia trilateral mechanism.