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Why are India's relations with Russia considered an important aspect of India's foreign policy? Explain.

Or

Explain the Eastern and the Western alliances during the Cold War period. Name any two European countries from amongst the following, which were not members of these alliances:

France, Poland, Sweden, Spain, Austria, Romania.

 

Answer:

In the post-bipolar world, India has maintained good relations with all the post-communist states. However the strongest point over here is India?s relations with Russia. India-Russian relations are wedded to a destiny of trust and mutual interest. Most Indian heroes from Raj Kapoor to Amitabh Bachhan are popular in these post - Soviet States.

Both India and Russia show a common vision of the post-cold war multipolar world. They believe in the co-existence of many powers in world politics. They believe in co-existence, collective security, greater regionalism, autonomous foreign policy for all states, and settlement of all international conflicts through negotiations and strengthening and democratization of decision-making bodies like U.N.O. Both India and Russia have signed over 80 bilateral agreements as part of the strategic agreement of 2001.

With Russia, India stands to get a vital support on Kashmir. Likewise, international terrorism, energy supply, access to central Asia and a balanced relationship with China are other key areas of increasing Indo-Russian relationship. Likewise, Russia would also be benefited as India is the second largest buyer of arms from Russia. Indian army gets most of its military hardware from Russia. Russia has always helped India whenever there is a shortage of oil, since India is an oil importing country. India stands to increase its energy imports from Russia and the republics of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. India Likewise, India?s nuclear energy and space programme cannot react their culmination without the aid of Russia.

Or

The small countries in the alliances utilized the support from the superpowers to their advantage. They were promised protection, economic aid and weapons as aid against their rivals, mostly neighbours. The alliance system thus divided the world into two camps. The first division took place in Europe. West European countries joined the US and thus this bloc was also called ?Western alliance?. East European countries joined the Soviet bloc and were often referred to as ?Eastern powers?.

The Western alliance was called NATO while the Eastern alliance was called Warsaw. Global alliances during the Cold War period were determined by the needs of superpowers and calculations of smaller states. Europe was the centre of conflict. Soviet intervention in East Europe was used by USA to bring other countries under its alliance. USA also built the alliance system in west Asia called CENTO and in East Asia called the SEATO. Soviet Union responded by having close relations with Communist China, North Vietnam, North Korea and Iraq.

Romania and Spain are two European Countries which were not members of these alliances.