USA - India strategic partnership: challenges for Russia

The first two years of Narendra Modi’s governance were marked with the unprecedented level of activity on the world stage. In particular, the India-U.S. strategic partnership gained new momentum. The major areas of the growing bilateral cooperation are defense and security, economy, space, science and technology. The rise of politico-military interactions between two states in Indo-Pacific region as well as the increased share of American companies in the Indian defense market challenge Russian interests. Apart from that, the realization of U.S.-India civil nuclear agreement may result in the competition between Russian and American energy companies. On the one hand, in the short-term perspective there are no threats to the positions of Russia in two key areas of cooperation with India (defense and nuclear energy). On the other hand, preserving the leadership requires careful attention to the relationship with New Delhi since the potential of bilateral cooperation remains to be unleashed.