NEW DELHI
\nIndian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh began a three-day trip to Russia on Sunday, as New Delhi seeks to further strengthen its military cooperation with Moscow.
\nRussia is India\u2019s biggest crude oil supplier and the main source of its military hardware, with their bilateral ties spanning over seven decades.
\nDuring his visit, Singh is set to commission the Indian Navy\u2019s latest warship, a multi-role stealth guided missile frigate INS Tushil in Kaliningrad on Monday, alongside the Chief of the Naval Staff Adm. Dinesh K. Tripathi, the Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
\nHe will also co-chair with his Russian counterpart, Andrey Belousov, a meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military and Military Technical Cooperation on Tuesday.
\n\u201cThe two leaders will review the entire range of multi-faceted relations between the two countries in the field of defence, including military-to-military and industrial cooperation. They will also exchange views on contemporary regional and global issues of mutual interest,\u201d the statement read.
\nSingh\u2019s visit follows a series of high-level meetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this year, which includes their July meeting in Moscow.
\nModi and Putin also met in Kazan in October, on the sidelines of the 2024 BRICS summit.
\nPutin is expected to visit India early next year, according to reports citing the Kremlin.
\nThe Indian defense minister\u2019s visit will \u201csymbolize\u201d how the India-Russia partnership has continued at a time \u201cwhen other states have turned against Russia,\u201d particularly since Moscow\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, said Amitabh Singh, associate professor at the Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University.
\n\u201cThis visit is in continuation with the annual meeting that (the defense ministers) have. This becomes all the more relevant in the context of ongoing conflict in West Asia and Ukraine,\u201d he told Arab News.
\nNew Delhi has abstained from publicly criticizing Russia over the Ukraine war and did not join the chorus of international sanctions slapped on Moscow, despite pressure from Western countries.
\nWhile India\u2019s dependence on Russian military hardware has decreased over the years as it diversified supply from other countries, Moscow still plays an important role for Indian defense needs, Singh said.
\n\u201cIndia has not given up on Russia despite the differences and difficulties that the Russian military supplies are facing,\u201d he added.
\n\u201cWe cannot stop our collaboration. We want to reduce our dependence, but we can\u2019t simply shrug off our dependence on Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW DELHI Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh began a three-day trip to Russia on Sunday, as New Delhi seeks to further strengthen its military cooperation with Moscow. Russia is India\u2019s biggest crude oil supplier and the main source of its military hardware, with their bilateral ties spanning over seven decades. During his visit, Singh is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-448184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n