UpFront Blog: Future of the India-Russia relationship post Sochi summit

On May 21, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin for an informal summit in Sochi, where the two leaders upgraded this traditionally close relationship to a “special privileged strategic partnership.” Despite this, developments in West Asia, Afghanistan, and bilateral defence ties between India and Russia have raised questions about the future of the partnership.  To discuss these issues, we hosted an expert roundtable discussion featuring Nandan Unnikrishnan, Vice President, Senior Fellow and head of the Eurasia Studies program at Observer Research Foundation. The discussion was chaired by Shivshankar Menon, Distinguished Fellow at Brookings and India’s former National Security Advisor and Foreign Secretary.

The discussion was private, off-the-record and under the Chatham House Rule.

Unnikrishnan also spoke to Dhruva Jaishankar separately about the takeaways from the Wuhan Summit. Watch the video: