In addition to China, Russia is pulling closer to another of India’s adversaries: Pakistan. During a 2020 visit from the Indian defense minister to Moscow, Russia’s defense minister pledged to not supply arms to Pakistan. But during a 2021 visit to Islamabad, the Russian foreign minister said that Russia and Pakistan will strengthen ties in the fight against terrorism and that Russia would provide military equipment and participate in joint exercises. Additionally, the two countries are collaborating on the Pakistan Stream gas project oil pipeline from Karachi to eastern Lahore.

All of this is to say that Russia has moved closer to Pakistan, which creates an opportunity for the United States to tighten its bonds of alliance with India. The United States could and should be doing more to dislodge the chokehold Russia has on Indian defense spending.

India may not have adopted a uniformly pro-Western policy but it is moving in that direction. India’s explanation of its vote at the U.N. offers no defense of Russia—indeed, identical reasoning could be offered as a defense of a vote in support of Ukraine. And more generally, the fact that India didn’t vote in favor of its main arms supplier is fairly significant. India has been pushed toward the United States in other contexts but it is possible that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will push the world’s two biggest democracies still closer.