Russian President Vladimir Putin will arrive in India on Monday for his second overseas trip since the pandemic, aiming to bolster military and energy ties with a traditional ally courted by Washington.
In its efforts to address a rising China, Washington has set up the QUAD security dialogue with India, Japan, and Australia, raising concerns in both Beijing and Moscow.
India is close to the Soviet Union during the Cold War, a relationship that has endured, with New Delhi calling it a special and privileged strategic partnership between India and Russia. The friendship between India and Russia has stood the test of time, Modi told Putin at a virtual summit in September. You have always been a great friend of India. It is only the Russian leader's second trip abroad since the coronaviruses epidemic began - he skipped both the G 20 and COP 26 summits this year - after a June summit with US President Joe Biden in Geneva.
Nandan Unnikrishnan, a think tank from New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, said it was hugely symbolic.
It's indicative how they do not want the relationship to stagnate or slow down for lack of something from the Russian side. Putin has to contend with complex regional dynamics, with tensions between India and Russia's traditional ally China following deadly clashes in a disputed Himalayan region.
Russia's influence in the region is very limited, said Tatiana Belousova of OP Jindal Global University in Haryana, mainly because of its close relations with China and unwillingness to act in dissonance with the Chinese regional interests. The Kremlin said last week that the talks would be dominated by defence and energy issues, with the boss of Russian energy giant Rosneft, Igor Sechin, also traveling as a number of important energy agreements were on the table.
Russia is a key arms supplier to India, which is looking to modernise its forces, and one of their most high-profile current contracts is for the long-range S-400 ground-to air missile defence system.
The deal, worth over $5 billion, was signed in 2018 and deliveries have begun but it threatens to end the relationship between New Delhi and Washington.
The US has threatened to take sanctions under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, CAATSA, which is aimed at reining Russia, and the state department said last week that no decisions had been made on waivers for India.
Despite the US disapproval of the S-400 deal, it is quite remarkable that India still decided to go ahead with it, said Belousova.
New Delhi has long tried to diversify its military imports, but analysts believe it will take some time before it moves away from Russia.
According to Unnikrishnan, military equipment was the most important thing for India given the unabated tensions with Pakistan. You're going to try and nurture whatever is required to ensure that. India is keen to increase domestic production and has launched a joint venture with Russia to manufacture AK-203 assault rifles.
India and Russia usually hold annual summits, but the leaders' last in-person meeting was on the sidelines of the 2019 BRICS Summit in Brazil.
India's ministry of external affairs said last month that the leaders would review the state and prospects of bilateral relations and discuss ways to strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries.
The foreign and defence ministers of both countries will hold talks on Monday.