Amitav Acharya

That can change.

I think that is also the... India, of course, now under the Modi government, moved much closer to the US than any previous government had been.

And they invested a lot on this relationship.

I have talked to Indian leaders and they said, this is the best relationship we have with the US in a long time.

The United States accepted India's nuclear power status, which is a big, this is not Trump.

It started with George W. Bush.

George W. Bush is hugely popular in India because of the change of policy.

So with that, relations with Russia were not as special as

as they could have been.

So India, as you know, is a non-aligned or multi-aligned country in terms of foreign policy.

So India felt that it could maintain good relations with traditional partner, the Russians, continue to get weapons.

India wanted to maintain that relationship, diplomatic support from Russia, but at the same time cultivate closer relations with the US.

So you can say it's multi-alignment.

You can say it's playing both ways, having your cake and eat it too.

That's a good question.

I mean, first of all, the Indian policy has always been not to depend too much on one country or align with one power.

So it was non-aligned.

Now it's a...

Multi-aligned.

So I think the rationale for that is very clear, that you don't have to choose sides.