Name? Narendra Modi
Westphalian identity? Indian
Age? 71
Why is he in the news? Earlier this week, Prime Minister Modi hosted Russian President Putin to discuss defence and trade relations resulting in the signing of 28 investment pacts, including India’s procurement of more than 600,000 assault rifles from Russia.
Why do we care? Honestly, we are pretty impressed with Modi’s ability to remain friends (more or less) with both its mega-neighbours despite joining the US-led Quad group on the Indo-Pacific region. Modi is clearly creating enough confidence-boosting initiatives to keep everyone happy and interested in investing in India. Especially considering that this is only Putin’s second overseas trip since the pandemic began. He skipped out on the G20 and Cop26 Summits this year but came physically to meet with Modi.
Why should you care? Because Modi and Putin’s meeting highlights the complexity of geopolitics. With Modi’s closeness with Washington and Putin’s closeness with Beijing, many believed the India-Russia relationship finished. You should care 8/10 about this speculation defying visit.
Who else cares? US President Joe Biden. After a particularly difficult conversation with Putin on Ukraine, it could not have been easy to then hear the Russian leader calling India, one of Biden’s besties, “a friendly nation and a time-tested friend,” Not quite the backup Biden was hoping for in his strongarm approach to Putin…
Any further comments? Given Putin’s contempt with Biden and closeness with Beijing, not to mention Modi’s friendship with Biden and border clashes with China, it’s hard to believe these two could agree on anything. Despite these complex regional dynamics, it seems Modi and Putin could equally commit to one cause: Ensuring that Afghanistan will never become a safe haven for international terrorism. With Biden out, Modi and Putin are likely to work closer than ever to confront the security issues of a Taliban-run Afghanistan in their own backyard; especially with the untimely death of India’s top military general…
