"Friendship" with "Indra"

Meanwhile, the old ally of Russia and this year’s BRICS chairman, India, released a statement in which it expressed concern over the Russian-Pakistani exercises. However, the director of the Asian Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Zamir Kabulov, has assured the Indian side that such is groundless. It is reported that Moscow has informed New Delhi about the plans and site of the exercises. It is known that they will not occur in areas that are the subject of dispute between Pakistan and India.

India itself is ramping up military and political cooperation with the West. A series of US-India meetings have passed at which the White House made clear its interest in India as being important for Washington to contain China, and partly Russia.

This year, the exercises are of an anti-terrorist character. It should be recalled that a decision on joint counteracting terrorism was taken at a recent meeting of SCO member states, which include both Russia, India and Pakistan. The resolution itself came from Russia’s representative.

However, terrorism in India has a slightly different character than in many other countries. After the attack by militants on India’s armed forces base in the troubled region of Kashmir, New Delhi has accused Islamabad of conducting a proxy war with terrorist groups. The United Kingdom and US support India in their efforts to hinder Eurasian integration and Russian influence in the region by fanning the flames of long-standing disputes and, in this case, supporting India’s view. Recently, a conference was held at which some liberal analysts called Pakistan a terrorist state, even though Islamabad suffers from Islamist terrorism no less than the rest of the world. Just during the recent holiday week, Muslims were subjected to several major attacks, one of them taking place in a mosque, and two assassination attempts on officials.