In the battle between the East and what’s left of the West, India is pivotal.
The East appears to be winning.
From Cuba’s Prensa Latina
New Delhi, Feb 13 Russian Prime Minister Viktor A. Zubkov’s visit to India has contributed to dissipating misunderstandings and boosting bilateral relations, which New Delhi described as special and strategic.
Zubkov wound up a very successful two-day working visit to India on Wednesday.
The two governments signed memorandums of understanding to strengthen and expand military ties, foster trade substantially, and fight drug trafficking and mercantile and customs crimes. They also confirmed their accord on civil nuclear cooperation.
According to the latter, Russia will assist India in building another four thermonuclear plants in Kudankulam, where two 1,000-megawatt light-water reactors are under construction.
However, the new civil nuclear pact will come into force after India finalizes the agreement that is negotiating with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Zubkov, who described India as “a trustworthy friend“, said Russia “will continue its cooperation in civil nuclear energy and the peaceful use of space.”
“The ties between our two countries guarantee a multipolar world,” said Zubkov, who urged to deepen collaboration in that direction.
But India has had friendly links with Russia for decades, pushed there by post-Independence American coldness towards democratic, secular India and support for military-dominated, Islamic Pakistan.
Nonetheless India remains secular, democratic and another rising giant of the free market. Pakistan remains a military-run, impoverished Islamic backwater, but now with nukes.
the battle between the East and what’s left of the West
Surely you meant “what’s left of the East.”
🙂