India must also contemplate on some of the old partnerships such as with Russia and new ones like Japan and Australia. While Russia continues to be an important partner for a number of security-related goals, India must recognize that Russia will never stand with New Delhi against China. This is so because Moscow needs Beijing more than ever in and therefore, Russia will not support India at the cost of its relationship with China. This is a central principle that India needs to get right to avoid critical errors in our strategic calculations. Russia will work with us when they can and when it does not go against China, but not otherwise. So engaging Russia in SCO, BRICS and RIC is fine but India must know we do not enjoy any particular advantage in these organizations because India’s old strategic partner, Russia is in there too. There are any number of examples to demonstrate this. In the Doklam conflict, for instance, Russia did not take a stand. Similarly, India-Russia collaboration on Chandrayaan 2 has been affected by the China factor. India’s admission into SCO is a classic case. India applied for its membership several years ago and despite Russia’s support to India, it could do nothing until China decided to include India along with Pakistan. So the Russian ability to stand up to China is limited. More critically, India needs to be careful of its dependence on Russian military equipment and ask if supplies of spares will be affected if India is engaged in a confrontation with China on the border.