On December 9, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had said that the 'West' was undermining Russia's 'privileged relations with India'. Lavrov had said that India was being used by the West as a part of its anti-China games. He also said that the US was undermining Russia's ties with India

New Delhi: India, on Friday, reached out to its all-weather ally Russia to clarify that New Delhi-relations with Moscow are not dependent on any third country. the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) response came after Russia accused the US of undermining the relations between New Delhi and Moscow.

"India enjoys long-standing relations with Russia. Our relations with Russia stand on their own merit... India does not see the Indo-Pacific region as a strategy," MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said in response to a question on Russia's claims that the 'west is adopting a policy to engage India in anti-China games’.

West Trying To Engage India In Anti-China Games: Lavrov

"Poles' like Russia and China are unlikely to be subordinate to it. However, India is currently an object of the Western countries' persistent, aggressive and devious policy as they are trying to engage it in anti-China games by promoting Indo-Pacific strategies, the so-called 'Quad'," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had said on December 9.

"At the same time, the West is attempting to undermine our close partnership and privileged relations with India. This is the goal of the US' very tough pressure on New Delhi in the military and technical cooperation area (with Russia)," he had further said during an address to a Russian think-tank.

India and Russia have, however, remained all-weather allies for decades. The defence cooperation between the two countries has resulted in the joint development of some of the most lethal weapon systems for the Indian armed forces.