From July 8-9, 2024, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to Russia for the annual India-Russia summit. This is the first summit since 2021 when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited India.

Officially, the agenda for Modi’s visit was to discuss further economic cooperation, expand defence, and, importantly release the Indians who were lured to Russia on the promises of finding a job but were sent to fight in Ukraine. According to the foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra, the Russians will permit an early discharge for all the Indians fighting.

The modern relationship between India and Russia dates back to the Soviet era. In 1947, India and the Soviet Union officially established diplomatic relations. However, relations were fraught since Joseph Stalin viewed India as “counter-revolutionary.” Relations improved after Nikita Khrushchev became the premier and in June 1955, Nehru made his first visit to the U.S.S.R. followed by Khrushchev’s visit to India in November 1955.

Additionally, while India was officially nonaligned, relations with Washington were hostile since the US perceived “non-aligned” as “pro-Soviet,” and had close relations with “non-communist” Pakistan instead. However, relations with the US briefly improved under J.F.K. and during the 1962 Sino-Indian War, the U.S. backed India while the Soviets stayed neutral.

In 1971, India and the Soviet Union signed the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, and Cooperation this treaty provided India with Soviet support during the 1971 India-Pakistan War (or the Bangladesh Liberation War.) By contrast, the Americans actively supported the Pakistanis and, even today, many Indian officials and parts of the public have a positive opinion of Russia. This is largely due to Soviet assistance during the 1971 war and its role in countering an American threat when it sent the U.S.S. Enterprise to the Bay of Bengal.

After the collapse of the U.S.S.R. in 1991, relations with Moscow continued to remain positive even as New Delhi improved relations with Washington. Today, Russia continues to be a major supplier of Indian arms, provides India with diplomatic support at the U.N. on issues related to Kashmir, and supplies energy.

Crucially, maintaining India’s strategic autonomy in foreign policy is shared by the B.J.P. and Congress Party. For example, in 2023 during an event in Brussels, Rahul Gandhi said, “I think the Opposition, by and large, would agree with India’s current position on the conflict. We (India) have a relationship with Russia. And I don’t think the Opposition would have a different view than what the government is currently proposing.”

While the Prime Minister of India’s foreign trips are generally scheduled ahead of time, the specific timing is what brought this visit so much scrutiny.

First, Modi’s visit took place while Russian missiles destroyed a children’s hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine. Amid this, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted, “It is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day.”

Nevertheless, Modi did say to reporters, “Whether it’s conflict, war or terror, any person who believes in humanity is troubled when there are deaths, especially when innocent children die.”

Second, this visit took place during the NATO summit in Washington.

According to The Washington Post, members of the Biden team are dissatisfied that the visit is taking place during the N.A.T.O. summit. An unnamed official said that the optics were “deeply inappropriate.” The State Department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, said “We made quite clear directly with India our concerns about their relationship with Russia.”

However, Modi’s visit reflects two critical realities of the world today.

First, the world of 2024 is not the world of 1945 that some in the West think. Emerging and middle powers such as India, Brazil, South Korea, Indonesia, and Türkiye have a voice independent of Washington, Brussels, or Moscow.

Second, Modi’s visit illustrates that national interests, not human rights, drive foreign policy.

For example, despite Joe Biden vowing to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah state,” he went to Saudi Arabia and, in his own words, justified that the visit was to “advance important American interests.”

It is no different for India, and as a sovereign country, its foreign policy choices reflect its national interests.