NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will seek to repair India's drifting partnership with Russia when he meets President Vladimir Putin this week, amid wariness over Moscow's renewed interest in New Delhi's backyard, analysts say.

The two leaders will look to stem a decline in trade between the once robust economic partners and resolve tensions over their shifting global alliances when they meet on Thursday ahead of a summit in Saint Petersburg.


The two countries enjoyed a 70-year alliance forged during the Cold War, when the Soviet Union was India's largest trading partner, diplomatic ally and main arms supplier, providing everything from tanks to aircraft.

But the relationship became unmoored following the collapse of the USSR, as India underwent an economic transformation and increasingly sought to build trade ties with Western nations.

That process has accelerated in recent years as New Delhi has orbited closer to Washington, and Russia has fostered relationships with India's chief regional rivals Pakistan and China, analysts say.
New Delhi, which is the world's top arms buyer, once relied on Moscow for its military hardware but has increasingly turned to the United States, France, and Israel to update its Soviet-era defence equipment in recent years.


Furthermore, Modi is now seeking to manufacture military hardware locally, asking foreign firms to work with domestic contractors under his "Make in India" campaign, in a bid to reduce reliance on costly imports.

Although Russia is close to finalizing a deal to build Kamov military helicopters in India, its recent pivot towards Pakistan has not gone unnoticed in New Delhi.

Moscow lifted its embargo on arms supplies to India's arch-rival in 2014, according to Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency, and was holding talks on supplying Islamabad with combat helicopters.

Moscow also rattled India recently with its decision to support the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a project opposed by New Delhi because it runs through the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.


The last few years have seen "a parting of the ways on many big issues, in particular on Afghanistan", where Moscow is seeking to broker a peace deal with Taliban insurgents, Jaishankar said.

Moscow -- which fought a disastrous military campaign in Afghanistan during the Soviet era -- has been increasingly flexing its muscles on the world stage, hosting a regional conference earlier this year that was aimed at facilitating peace talks between the Taliban and Kabul.