After India became a republic following the end of British rule in 1947, the country had a neutral position — although its founding prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, had a soft spot for Communist Russia.
But India tilted toward the Soviet Union in the 1970s, when it saw the United States providing military and financial support to its archenemy, Pakistan. The Soviets came to India’s aid.
India now relies on Russia for more than 60 percent of its military equipment. And Russia has often voted to support India in international forums, including refraining from criticism of its nuclear weapons tests in the 1990s.
India’s bonds with the United States are the tightest they’ve ever been, increasingly connected by the shared threat in the rise of an aggressive China. India’s spending on military equipment from the United States has gone from nearly zero to about $20 billion in just a little over a decade.
As World Rebukes Russia, India Tries to Stay Above the Fray