According to a survey by the New Delhi- based think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF), Russia is India’s most reliable partner since the independence of India in 1947. In the Survey, 43 percent of the respondents pitching for Moscow followed by 27 per cent who named the United States.
A sample of 5000 urban adolescents were included in the nationwide survey, which was carried out in 19 Indian cities. Young Indians replied to a variety of questions and gave the nation’s foreign policy a favourable rating. “The respondents named Russia as India’s most reliable partner since Independence (43 percent); the United States followed with 27 percent,” said the ORF Foreign Policy Survey 2022: India @75 and the World, authored by Harsh V Pant, Premesha Saha and others.
Since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine earlier this year, India’s bilateral relations with Russia have come under scrutiny from the West due to an increase in oil imports from the Moscow that is subject to sanctions. The more than eight-month-long war in Ukraine has had a substantial impact on world food security and caused a sharp rise in petroleum prices.
“In February 2022 the Russia-Ukraine conflict erupted, disturbing long-held norms of territorial integrity and sovereignty, and paving the way for a new form of total war: the weaponisation of everything. Ukraine’s supporters in the West have leveraged their dominance in the global financial system to inflict economic costs on Russia, while Moscow has weaponised food and energy exports to protect itself,” the survey said.
Accoring to the survey, “Urban Indian youth rated the country’s foreign policy positively: 25 percent graded it very good, and 52 percent, good. This is an increase from the 2021 survey report where 32 percent said it was very good, and 40 percent rated it good.”
“Nearly 80 percent agreed that Indian foreign policy has adequately defined what constitutes the country’s ‘neighbourhood’. The respondents expressed trust for the country’s immediate neighbours, except for Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2021, respondents said they trusted the country’s immediate neighbours except for Pakistan,” it added.