India’s annual summit with Russia was cancelled last year for the first time since its inception – the official reason, as was commonly blamed for many abandoned events, Covid-19. The summit’s cancellation was a rare hiccup in what has otherwise been a traditionally close partnership. Moscow has consistently proved itself to be a reliable partner to New Delhi in times of need, drawing comparisons to China’s “all-weather friend” relationship with Pakistan. Ever since a US arms boycott of the subcontinent during the 1965 Kashmir War, Russia (then the USSR) has been India’s go-to arms supplier. While the US backed Pakistan during the 1971 Bangladesh “Liberation War” – sending an aircraft carrier into the Bay of Bengal – Moscow supported India. When India conducted its second round of nuclear tests in the late 1990s, Russia – again unlike the US – did not publicly criticise New Delhi and actually aided its incipient nuclear program.