Aug 31, 2026 17:09 pm IST

Opinion | How A 'Friendship' Pact With Russia Came To India's Rescue 55 Years Ago

With PM Modi set to meet Putin in Kyrgyzstan, a throwback to a historic treaty that helped India fend off China - and America's 7th Fleet - over 50 years ago.

Aditi Bhaduri Aditi Bhaduri Columnist

Aditi Bhaduri Columnist

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, it will be an opportune moment in bilateral ties. And while one is not a soothsayer, it is more than possible that they will reminisce on an event that took place 55 years ago, and set the trajectory of bilateral relations between India and the Soviet Union first, and later the Russian Federation, its inheritor state.

August is a significant month in the history of the subcontinent. India and Pakistan won freedom, and the Partition occurred in 1947. Then East Pakistan's Mukti Bahini brigade launched Operation Jackpot against Pakistani forces in August 1971.

However, the most enduring post-1947 "August phenomenon" in the subcontinent may well be the signing of the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, and Cooperation on August 5, 1971, between India and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The Treaty went on to play a pivotal role not only in bilateral relations but also in the history of the subcontinent itself.

As former Russian Ambassador to India Nikolai Kudashyev writes in an article commemorating the 50th anniversary of the pact, "The Treaty was an integral part of the........

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