Nikolai Baisogolov, an India expert with Russian Trade Ministry, said in an interview. Indo-Russian trade includes tea, tobacco and pharmaceuticals from India and metal products, fertilizer and newsprint from Russia. During the Cold War, Moscow was India's biggest arms supplier and an important trade partner.
Arms sales remain an important factor of bilateral trade today.
India's appetite for Russian military hardware is probably being driven by local instability. India's desire to strengthen its air power could be explained by recent developments in its neighbor-adversary, Pakistan, where an October coup installed a military government. Under a protocol signed in November in New Delhi, Russia agreed to sell a range of weapons systems to India. Moscow also nurtured close ties with Vietnam, but the special relationship faded almost overnight after the collapse of Hanoi's main benefactor, the Soviet Union in 1991. Tens of thousands of Vietnamese still speak Russian, but a new mutual understanding is yet to emerge.