Russia and India recently announced that they are cooperating on developing joint liquefied natural gas projects. In an email interview, Jörg Himmelreich, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, discussed energy relations between Russia and India.
WPR: Historically, what has been the energy relationship between Russia and India?
Jörg Himmelreich: India and Russia have a formal strategic partnership dating back to the Cold War, when they were each other's single most important partner. Even after the demise of the Soviet Union, they enjoyed traditionally good relations, although the resulting fundamental shift in the global order changed their relative importance for each other. More recently, India's relationship with the U.S. has improved significantly since the U.S.-India nuclear deal, announced in 2005. But India is still by far Russia's most important arms customer today, receiving 54 percent of Russia's arms exports.