General Dhiraj Seth, Chief of the Army Staff, is on an official visit to Russia from 16 to 18 September 2026, described by the Ministry of Defence as aimed at strengthening the longstanding defence partnership and military-to-military cooperation between the two countries.
The itinerary is worth reading closely, because each stop signals a different strand of the relationship.
What the programme actually says
The COAS receives a ceremonial Guard of Honour and pays tribute at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow — the standard protocol opening for a visiting military chief, and a reminder that ceremonial acts in military diplomacy are a language of their own.
He holds discussions with Colonel General Andrei Nikolayevich Mordvichev, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Land Forces, on professional military cooperation and training. This is the core army-to-army channel — the counterpart conversation, chief to chief.
He visits the National Defence Control Centre in Moscow, Russia's centralised command-and-control facility, and interacts with senior officials of the Russian Ministry of Defence including Mr Vasily Sergeyevich Osmakov, Deputy Minister of Defence, who deals with defence industry and procurement. That name identifies the second strand: this is not only about training but about equipment.
Finally he travels to Saint Petersburg to visit the Mikhailovskaya Military Artillery Academy and interact with its leadership and faculty — the professional military education strand, and the oldest form of contact between the two armies.
Why Russia still matters to the Indian Army
The relationship is older than most of the equipment in it. The Soviet Union became India's principal arms supplier from the 1960s, and the inheritance is visible across all three services: T-72 and T-90 tanks, BMP infantry combat vehicles, Su-30MKI fighters, MiG-29 aircraft, Kilo-class submarines, the leased nuclear submarine programme, and the S-400 air defence system. The BrahMos supersonic cruise missile is an India–Russia joint venture, its name fusing the Brahmaputra and the Moskva.
Two features distinguish this supplier relationship from most others, and both are examinable.
Technology transfer and licensed production. A large share of Russian-origin equipment has been built in India under licence rather than imported finished — the Su-30MKI at HAL, the T-90 at the Heavy Vehicles Factory, Avadi. That arrangement built domestic industrial capacity in a way that off-the-shelf purchase does not, and it is the reason the Indian defence-industrial base looks the way it does.
Co-development. BrahMos is the leading example — not a purchase but a jointly designed system, now itself an export product. India's first major missile export contract, with the Philippines in 2022, was for BrahMos.
The institutional frame: India and Russia established a Strategic Partnership in 2000, elevated to a Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership in 2010 — a formulation India uses for Russia alone. The relationship is serviced by annual summit-level meetings and a 2+2 dialogue of foreign and defence ministers.
The diversification question, stated honestly
Any competent answer on India–Russia defence ties has to address the direction of travel, and it is not a simple story of continuity.
India has been diversifying its sources of supply for two decades. Major acquisitions now come from France (Rafale, Scorpène submarines), the United States (C-17, C-130J, P-8I, Apache and Chinook helicopters, MQ-9B), and Israel (radars, missiles, unmanned systems), alongside a growing volume of domestic production. The Russian share of Indian imports, while still the largest single-country share, has fallen substantially from where it stood two decades ago.
Two pressures drive this. The first is supply reliability — sustaining legacy fleets requires a steady flow of spares, and disruptions concentrate risk in a single-supplier relationship. The second is indigenisation: the positive indigenisation lists, the earmarking of a large share of the capital procurement budget for domestic industry, and the Aatmanirbhar Bharat push are all intended to reduce imports from every source, not from one in particular.
None of that makes the Russian relationship obsolete, which is the point candidates usually miss. A very large installed base of Russian-origin platforms will remain in service for decades, and every one of them needs spares, upgrades and trained crews. Sustainment is a relationship, not a transaction — which is precisely what an army-to-army visit covering training, procurement and military education is designed to maintain.
This also explains why the visit includes an artillery academy. Professional military education is the least glamorous and most durable strand of defence diplomacy: officers who train together early tend to talk to each other for thirty years.
Military diplomacy as an instrument
The release calls the visit an expression of sustained military diplomacy and Army-to-Army engagement, and the term deserves definition.
Military diplomacy is the peacetime use of armed forces as an instrument of foreign policy — joint exercises, high-level visits, training exchanges, port calls, defence attachés, equipment cooperation and humanitarian assistance conducted together. Its output is not an agreement but a relationship: interoperability, professional trust and channels that exist before a crisis rather than being improvised during one.
India runs one of the largest exercise calendars of any country, and the partner pairings are standing exam material. For Russia specifically, Exercise INDRA is the one to know — begun as a naval exercise in 2003 and later conducted in tri-service and army forms. The trap is Indra Dhanush, which is the India–UK air force exercise; the similarity of names is not accidental but it is exploited relentlessly in question papers. Our NDA study material sets out the full exercise table.
Russia is also a partner in the multilateral architecture India participates in: both are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and of BRICS, and the Russia–India–China (RIC) format exists alongside them.
🔑 Revision block
The visit. General Dhiraj Seth, Chief of the Army Staff, in Russia 16–18 September 2026, for defence cooperation and military-to-military ties.
The programme. Ceremonial Guard of Honour; tribute at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Moscow; talks with Col Gen Andrei Nikolayevich Mordvichev, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Land Forces; visit to the National Defence Control Centre, Moscow; interaction with Vasily Sergeyevich Osmakov, Deputy Minister of Defence (defence industry and procurement); visit to the Mikhailovskaya Military Artillery Academy, Saint Petersburg.
The three strands. Training and professional cooperation (army chief to army chief) · defence industry and procurement (deputy minister) · military education (artillery academy).
The partnership. Strategic Partnership 2000, elevated to a Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership in 2010 — a term India uses for Russia alone. Annual summits and a 2+2 dialogue.
Russian-origin inventory. T-72 and T-90 tanks, BMP ICVs, Su-30MKI, MiG-29, Kilo-class submarines, S-400 air defence. BrahMos is an India–Russia joint venture — named for the Brahmaputra and Moskva — and India's first major missile export, to the Philippines in 2022.
What is distinctive. Licensed production in India (Su-30MKI at HAL; T-90 at HVF Avadi) and co-development (BrahMos) rather than only off-the-shelf purchase.
Diversification. Major acquisitions now also from France (Rafale, Scorpène), the United States (C-17, C-130J, P-8I, Apache, Chinook, MQ-9B) and Israel, plus rising domestic production. Russia remains the largest single source but its share has fallen.
Military diplomacy. Peacetime use of armed forces for foreign policy — exercises, visits, training, port calls, attachés. Output is interoperability and trust, not a treaty.
Exercise pairing. INDRA = Russia (naval from 2003, later tri-service/army). Indra Dhanush = United Kingdom, air force. Shared multilateral platforms: SCO, BRICS, RIC.
🎯 Practice MCQs
Q1. Exercise INDRA is conducted between India and: (a) Indonesia (b) Russia (c) the United Kingdom (d) Israel → (b) — Indra Dhanush is the India–UK air exercise.
Q2. The BrahMos missile is a joint venture between India and: (a) France (b) Israel (c) Russia (d) the United States → (c) — the name fuses the Brahmaputra and the Moskva.
Q3. India and Russia describe their relationship as a: (a) Comprehensive Global Partnership (b) Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership (c) Major Defence Partnership (d) Comprehensive Strategic Partnership → (b) — from 2010; "Major Defence Partner" is the US designation for India.
Q4. The Su-30MKI fighter operated by the Indian Air Force is: (a) Purchased entirely off the shelf (b) Of Russian origin and produced in India under licence by HAL (c) An indigenous design (d) A French design → (b) — licensed production is a defining feature of the relationship.
Q5. Which of the following is not of Russian origin? (a) T-90 tank (b) Kilo-class submarine (c) S-400 air defence system (d) Scorpène-class submarine → (d) — the Scorpène is French, built at Mazagon Dock.
Q6. "Military diplomacy" is best described as: (a) Negotiating arms-control treaties only (b) The peacetime use of armed forces as an instrument of foreign policy (c) Deploying troops for combat abroad (d) The work of defence attachés alone → (b) — exercises, visits, training and equipment cooperation together.
Q7. India's first major export contract for the BrahMos missile was signed with: (a) Vietnam (b) Indonesia (c) the Philippines (d) Malaysia → (c) — in 2022.
Q8. Which of the following forums includes both India and Russia? (a) Quad (b) Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (c) NATO (d) G7 → (b) — as does BRICS; the Quad does not include Russia.
Q9. The Chief of the Army Staff's visit to Saint Petersburg in September 2026 was to: (a) The National Defence Control Centre (b) The Mikhailovskaya Military Artillery Academy (c) The Russian Ministry of Defence headquarters (d) A shipbuilding yard → (b) — the National Defence Control Centre is in Moscow.
Q10. Consider the following statements: 1. Russia remains the single largest source of India's defence imports, though its share has declined. 2. India has diversified defence procurement towards France, the United States and Israel. (a) 1 only (b) 2 only (c) Both 1 and 2 (d) Neither → (c) — diversification and continuity are both true, which is what makes this a good statement pair.
📋 How this gets asked (PYQ pattern)
India–Russia defence questions take four shapes in the NDA General Ability Test. The exercise item asks which country an exercise is with, and INDRA against Indra Dhanush is the designed confusion — Russia against the United Kingdom, navy-and-army against air force. The platform-origin item gives an aircraft, tank, ship or missile and asks its source country; the useful habit is to sort the inventory by origin once rather than item by item. The partnership-terminology item matches a phrase to a country — "Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership" for Russia, "Major Defence Partner" for the United States, "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" for several others. The joint-venture item asks which systems are co-developed, where BrahMos is the anchor answer.
A fifth groove is growing with the indigenisation push: questions on licensed production versus outright import, which test whether a candidate understands that a Russian-origin aircraft may still be an Indian-built one.
The fresh 2026 hooks are the 16–18 September dates, the meeting with the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Land Forces, the National Defence Control Centre, and the Mikhailovskaya Military Artillery Academy at Saint Petersburg. We describe the recurring pattern here, not any exact past question.
Preparing for the NDA? Defence relationships are best learnt as a table — partner, exercise, platforms, partnership phrase — because that is exactly the form the questions take. Build the base with our NDA study material, follow the daily NDA current affairs, and prepare with our faculty in the upcoming Cavalier courses in Delhi.
✍️ Written by Maj Sunil Chopra — Co-founder and defence studies faculty at The Cavalier. Reviewed by the Cavalier Faculty Desk. The Cavalier, founded by ex-Army officers, has trained NDA/CDS/SSB aspirants since 2001 (Facebook · YouTube).
Source: PIB / Ministry of Defence, 16 September 2026 (Release ID 2310708). The partnership terminology and its 2010 elevation, the Russian-origin inventory, licensed-production arrangements and the BrahMos export to the Philippines cross-verified with official and independent defence sources.