India, Nov. 9 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin's upcoming visit to New Delhi for an annual bilateral summit in December is being seen as an opportunity to add greater heft and give new direction to one of India's legacy partnerships at a time when international relations are being rewritten because of the churn on the global stage. It will also be an opportunity for India to reassert its policy of strategic autonomy and backing for a multilateral world order against the backdrop of the US trying to unilaterally dictate trade terms for other nations.

It is in this context that Russian ambassador Denis Alipov's statement that India and Russia are set to improve trade settlements and institute mechanisms to limit the risk of Western sanc...