"The Indo-Russian partnership works to counterbalance the United States' dominant position in the IOR, thereby fostering a multipolar power structure. Russia and India challenge the Western-centric security order by fortifying their defence and maritime cooperation, which provides regional countries with alternative security partnerships beyond the US-led framework," Joseph P Chacko, a maritime security analyst and author told Sputnik India on Friday.
Should the Indian Navy emerge as the dominant force in the IOR, India could benefit from increased Russian involvement, with Russia providing advanced hardware, technology, and joint training to enhance India's military capabilities, the pundit observed.
"Enhanced Russian presence and participation in the IOR would likely affect a wide range of strategic dynamics between the United States and Russia. Russia has the potential to enhance its naval and air force presence in the IOR, thereby challenging the United States' dominance in the region and increasing military activity and power projection," Chacko said.
"A greater and more regular Russian role in the IOR would balance out the Sino-US competition there by having Russia serve as a reliable third-party partner for countries to cooperate with instead of the seemingly zero-sum Sino-US choice," Korybko highlighted.
Closer Russo-Indo cooperation in the IOR, especially its naval dimension if RELOS is finally signed, can supercharge their shared vision of serving as a joint third pole of influence in an increasingly bifurcated Sino-US world whose systemic effects would be felt much more strongly as the New Cold War shifts to Asia, he underscored.
"They can, therefore, form a reliable third party for other nations to partner with — countries that would prefer to remain neutral in the Sino-US front of the New Cold War, rather than feeling pressured to side with one superpower at the risk of offending the other," Korybko assessed.
Korybko believes that this informal network, likely comprised of many mini-laterals centered on Russia, India, and both nations together, can then defend against increasingly stronger bipolarity pressures on the global system to advance a more complex form of multipolarity with time.
India is keen on building what could be called a "security system" for the Indian Ocean region that serves the interests of all regional players, Alexey Kupriyanov, the head of the Center of the Indo-Pacific Region at the Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMEMO) told Sputnik India.
"Primarily, radar stations are being built along the entire coast of the Indian subcontinent, as well as in other countries that wish to participate — such as Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, the Maldives, and, until recently, Sri Lanka, among others. These stations serve a 'noble' mission," Kupriyanov underlined.
Apart from that India is strengthening its position around the Andaman Islands, which block the Strait of Malacca, and is gradually creating a surveillance system for the Sunda Strait, the Lombok Strait, and other narrow passages in the Malay Barrier, Kupriyanov asserted.
He anticipates that the western part of the Indian Ocean, particularly the East African coastline, is an area where Russia's presence would not raise any major objections.
He called India a strong proponent of a multipolar world. Not many people know this, but in the 19th century, the British settled around 30 million Indian workers along the entire perimeter of the Indian Ocean. There is no country with a coastline along the Indian Ocean that doesn't have an Indian diaspora and India is developing economic ties with these communities, Lunev revealed.