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Russia invites India to participate in military exercises

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MOSCOW, September 2 (RIA Novosti) -- Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has made a proposal to India to hold major Russian-Chinese-Indian military exercises similar to the recent maneuvers it had held with China, the Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye military weekly reported Friday.

Experts said this means that Russia has serious plans for its policy in the east.

Alexei Bogaturov, deputy director of the International Security Institute, said the Russian political elite was tired of Moscow's attempts to win the respect of the West and the United States. Russia's opinion is respected only when it is feared, he said. "On the one hand, Russia does not want to be feared, but on the other hand, you must be strong to be respected," the expert said. This explains recent hints about the creation of powerful military blocs.

According to Bogaturov, there are no reasons to believe that Moscow, Beijing and New Delhi want to join forces against Washington. They simply want to be respected. "These joint exercises are, above all, a kind of political statement," the expert said.

Anatoly Tsyganok, the head of the Military Forecasting Center at the Institute for Political and Military Analysis, said the desire of Moscow and Beijing to establish a military-political alliance pointed to their "growing resistance against the unipolar structure of the world advocated by the Americans." The attempt to involve India in a joint naval group looks logical in this situation, the expert said.

Ivanov was pursuing one more goal when he made the offer, the expert said. About a month ago, the Indian military leadership again protested against Russian arms deliveries to India's adversaries in the Indian Ocean, in particular China. India said it would buy from other major arms exporters unless Russia heeded its appeal.

Therefore, Russia's offer to hold joint military maneuvers and later to create a military group in the Asian-Pacific region is also an attempt to sooth India's concern over Russian arms exports to China, the weekly concluded.

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