The Soviet Foreign Policy Towards India, 1955–1991

India is a case study for how the Soviet Union tried to use the Third World and decolonization to advance its geostrategic position in the Cold War world. From Nikita Khrushchev’s celebrated visit to India in 1955 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, three drivers shaped Moscow’s engagement of New Delhi: the prospect of spreading communism to India as a domestic political ideology, the Cold War confrontation against the United States, and the Sino-Soviet relationship. All three drivers played a critical role in sustaining the relatively strong relationship between these two large but very different states, whose impact varied depending on the national leadership of the time and their respective broader foreign policy goals. Ideology, including an appreciation for socialism (though not communism) and a rejection of Western hegemony, was a key driver during the Khrushchev era, though it diminished over time. The Cold War was an important driver throughout the relationship, though India’s value to the Soviet Union was less about how it could be instrumentalized against the United States but rather about its stature and influence across the Third World. Finally, the Sino-Soviet split emerged as the strongest driver of Soviet foreign policy towards India from the Brezhnev era onwards, with Moscow persistently trying to convince India to subscribe to its collective security vision for Asia. Despite the combination of ideological affinity and strategic convergences between the two countries, Soviet policy was always guided by how India could factor into Moscow’s foreign policy ambitions. As Moscow charted its overall strategy against Washington and Beijing, it found sufficient common cause with New Delhi to sustain a relatively strong — if unlikely — friendship. Read Full Article »