India, Russia ties see a revival as China, Afghanistan and Central Asia dominate bilateral agenda

Weeks after a summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin yielded 28 agreements including military deals, Russia and India have exchanged a white paper on ways to step up their defence cooperation in Central Asia. The document includes recommendations on how both countries can jointly manufacture defence equipment in the former Soviet states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, and conduct bilateral counterterrorism and military drills, Indian media reported. On Tuesday, Putin met his Tajiki counterpart Emomali Rahmon in St. Petersburg and revealed that Moscow had recently supplied weapons to Dushanbe to counter security threats. It…