The Hindu Business Line : Ties re-defined

THE OLD BONHOMIE, based on ideological ties, between New Delhi and Moscow is a thing of the past. In the new, post-Cold War environment, hard-nosed economic and business considerations are what matters in the ties between the two countries. This is what the recent visit to India of the Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, underscored. The two countries still remain diplomatically aligned, but when it comes to trade and business, it will be by the laws of the marketplace. This is as it should be because the economic profile of both Russia and India has changed over the past 15 years, and both stand to gain if their comparative advantages are leveraged.

Thus, there was an under-current of hard bargaining to the various agreements and MoUs signed during Mr Putin's three-day visit. The negotiations on specific Defence projects — still the lynchpin of the relationship — bear this out. There has been a shift from the "supplier-client" relationship of the past to one of collaboration and joint ventures between equals. Thus, for perhaps the first time, Russia openly took a firm stand on the issue of New Delhi granting intellectual property rights (IPR) protection to the Defence technology transferred to India; a demand that was rightly acceded to. Also raised was the question about India "buying spares and upgrades of Russian weapons from Israel" which may make commercial sense from Moscow's standpoint but not so from New Delhi's point of view. There is no reason why there should be a review of the developing military-technology ties with Israel or the decision to opt for the Patriot missile defence system just because of pressure from Moscow if New Delhi feels that such a step may not be in the nation's security interests.

The Russians also made it clear that New Delhi cannot expect further supplies of enriched uranium for the Tarapur power plant because of the rules set by the Nuclear Suppliers' Group. Incidentally, Moscow transgressed these very rules in 2001 on the plea that the supply of 50 tonnes of enriched uranium at the time was justified because of "safety" reasons. Surely that argument still holds good but, significantly, Moscow is now citing the NSG rule book for not supplying the enriched uranium sought by New Delhi. On its part, New Delhi did well to hard-bargain over the issues of Russia's membership of the World Trade Organisation and the grant of market-economy status for all anti-dumping cases, thereby acknowledging the economic transformation that has swept that country since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Mr Putin's visit also focussed attention on the growing collaboration in the field of energy, specifically between ONGC/GAIL and Russian oil/gas giants, leading to the signing of a number of agreements. India will particularly benefit as these deals can augment its crude oil and gas resources — a manna in these times of volatile international oil prices. Another promising area is the IT sector, the $7-billion Russian market presenting a huge opportunity to Indian vendors, especially software for high-end programming. Mr Putin's two-day visit to Bangalore symbolised the importance of this aspect of the relations, and New Delhi and the IT sector must pick up the cue and pursue it energetically.

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