Historic relation

Soviet Ambassador Kirill Novikov arriving in New

Delhi 1947 to establish formal diplomatic relations with India

Soviet Union supported Indian sovereignty over the disputed territory of the Kashmir region
and over Portuguese coastal enclaves such as Goa.

The Soviet Union declared its neutrality during the 1959 border dispute and the Sino-Indian
war of October 1962, although the Chinese strongly objected. 

 In 1962 the Soviet Union agreed to transfer technology to co-produce the Mikoyan-Gurevich
MiG-21 jet fighter in India, which the Soviet Union had earlier denied to China.

 The Soviet Chairman of the Council of Ministers, literally Premier of the Soviet

Union, Alexei Kosygin, met with representatives of India and Pakistan and helped them
negotiate an end to the military conflict over Kashmir.

According to a 2014 BBC World Service Poll, 45% of Russians view India positively, with
only 9% expressing a negative view.

Similarly, a pool was conducted in 2007 which showed the result that the Russians identified
India as one of their top five "friends", with the others
being Belarus, China, Kazakhstan and Syria.
Space relation

The first man to travel in space, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin said “I think that sometime
Soviet and Indian cosmonauts will research unexplored expanses of space together.”

Rakesh Sharma the first Indian to travel to outer space, on board the Soyuz T-11 spacecraft
with a Russian commander and a Russian flight Engineer.

FORTY-TWO YEARS AND COUNTING

India and Russia have a 4-deacde strong relationship in the field of space.

The Former Soviet Union launched India’s first two satellites, Aryabhata and Bhaskar.
Aryabhata was launched on the soviet launch vehicle Soyuz.

Even today, both countries cooperate on lunar and Mars exploration missions. India will be
using Russian isotope products in its lunar mission Chandrayaan-2, which will be launched in
2018.

The second of India’s Mini Satellite (IMS) series, YOUTHSAT, is a joint Indo-Russian
mission, in which University students have participated. The mission aims to understand how
solar activity variation affects Earth’s upper atmosphere. The satellite has three payloads -
two Indian and one Russian.9

BILATERAL AGREEMENTS

When Russian President Vladimir Putin visited India in December 2004, the two countries
signed two space-related bilateral agreements, namely the ‘Inter-governmental Umbrella
Agreement on Cooperation in Outer space for Peaceful Purposes’ and the ‘Inter Space
Agency Agreement on Cooperation in the Russian Satellite Navigation System GLONASS’.

Agreement on cooperation in the field of solar physics and solar terrestrial relationships
within the framework of Coronas-Photon project was also signed in 2005 to enable
integration of the Indian RT-2 payload with the Coronas-Photon spacecraft

2007 witnessed the signing of an agreement between ISRO and Russia’s space agency
Roscosmos to jointly develop India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission
In 2015, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Russian Federal Space Agency
(ROSCOSMOS) signed a new MoU on expanding cooperation in the exploration and use of
outer space for peaceful purposes.

THE BRICS SUMMIT

When the Russian President and Indian Prime Minister met at the BRICS Summit 2016 in
Goa, they “reaffirmed their commitment to pursue the immense potential to cooperate in
outer space with a view to advance socially useful applications and scientific knowledge.”

They also confirmed their commitment to “elaborate within the Scientific and Technical
Subcommittee of the UN Committee on Space a consolidated approach to the preparation of
the set of guidelines for the long-term sustainability of outer space activities and regulatory
provisions on safety of space operations, as the most important component of the said
document.

References

Make In India (2018). 7O YEARS OF INDIA-RUSSIA: SPACE EXPLORATION.

Retrieved from http://www.makeinindia.com/article/-/v/70-years-of-india-russia-space-
exploration

Khanna, V.N. (2007) Foreign Policy of India (6th ed.) New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House
Pvt Ltd

India, Ministry of External Affairs (2018): “India-Russia Joint Statement during visit of
President of Russia to India (October 05, 2018) https://www.mea.gov.in/bilateral-
documents.htm?
dtl/30469/IndiaRussia_Joint_Statement_during_visit_of_President_of_Russia_to_India_Octo
ber_05_2018

Seethi, K. M. (2018, October 13). Strategic Turn-around in India-Russia Relations- South

Asia set to witness Arms Build-up – Countercurrents. Retrieved from
https://countercurrents.org/2018/10/13/strategic-turn-around-in-india-russia-relations-south-
asia-set-to-witness-arms-build-up/