Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at India’s ties with Russia, U.S.-mediated peace talks between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the last deceased Israeli hostage in Gaza.
Walking the Wire
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin to New Delhi on Thursday to kick off a two-day summit focused on bolstering economic cooperation and inking defense deals. For Putin, this is a chance to show the world that Moscow is not isolated on the world stage amid its war against Ukraine. But for Modi, this week’s talks are a test to see how well India can balance maintaining crucial ties with Russia while also trying to appease the United States.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at India’s ties with Russia, U.S.-mediated peace talks between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the last deceased Israeli hostage in Gaza.
Walking the Wire
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin to New Delhi on Thursday to kick off a two-day summit focused on bolstering economic cooperation and inking defense deals. For Putin, this is a chance to show the world that Moscow is not isolated on the world stage amid its war against Ukraine. But for Modi, this week’s talks are a test to see how well India can balance maintaining crucial ties with Russia while also trying to appease the United States.
New Delhi insists that it is a neutral party in the Russia-Ukraine war. However, U.S. President Donald Trump has accused India of financing Moscow’s war effort through its continued purchases of Russian oil. Indian trade with Russia has swelled from $10.1 billion before the COVID-19 pandemic to $68.7 billion in the past fiscal year, with more than a third of all Indian oil imports coming from Russia over the past three years.
Such actions have soured U.S.-India relations in recent months. Under the Biden administration, Washington viewed New Delhi as a vital partner to countering China in the region. But under Trump, that friendship has largely been cast aside in favor of heavy tariffs, with Trump deciding in August to double duties on India from 25 percent to 50 percent over its business dealings with Russian crude.
In October, the United States sanctioned Russia’s two largest oil corporations, Lukoil and Rosneft. In response, India’s biggest oil companies stopped buying Russian crude almost entirely. Putin has dismissed these actions as limited, telling India Today on Thursday that “our energy cooperation with India remains unaffected by current conditions, fleeting political swings or indeed the tragic events in Ukraine.”
Experts suggest that Modi minimizing India’s Russian oil purchases is an effort to resolve tensions with Trump. But that may not be enough to satisfy the White House, as New Delhi is still reliant on Moscow across several other sectors.
Notably, Russia is India’s biggest supplier of weapons, with Russian-made equipment making up more than 60 percent of New Delhi’s existing inventory. That includes most of India’s air defense systems, fighter jets, rifles, and missiles. This week, India is likely to announce that it will purchase Russian Su-57 fighter jets and S-400 air defense systems, the latter of which played a significant role in India’s four-day war with Pakistan in May.
Alongside weapons purchases, India is also hoping to secure new destinations for its exports to help counter the United States’ debilitating tariffs. In exchange, New Delhi plans to negotiate a more streamlined system to allow Indian citizens to work for companies in Russia, thereby alleviating some of Moscow’s war-induced labor shortages.
This is Putin’s first trip to India since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. However, the two leaders have met since then in Moscow and other countries.
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Seeking peace in eastern Congo. Trump hosted Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi at the White House on Thursday to oversee the signing of a deal aimed at advancing peace in the region. The White House mediated a cease-fire agreement between the two countries in June, hailing it as evidence of Trump’s peacemaker-in-chief credentials. However, the deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo was never implemented, and heavy fighting in recent days has cast a shadow over Thursday’s proceedings.
For more than a decade, violent clashes have erupted in eastern Congo between Congolese forces and the M23 rebel group, which the international community has accused Rwanda of backing; Kigali denies involvement. Peace talks in Doha, Qatar, earlier this year failed to produce a consensus on several issues, including the return of M23-held areas to Congolese control and the disarmament of armed groups. Over the past month, fighting in the region killed more than 400 people, including nearly 300 civilians.
On Thursday, Kagame and Tshisekedi pledged to implement an economic integration compact, which they already agreed to last month, and signed deals concerning critical minerals and security cooperation. Trump has long had his eye on the mineral-rich region, known for its vast lithium and copper deposits.
One hostage left. Israeli officials confirmed on Thursday that only one deceased hostage remains in Gaza after Hamas returned the body of a Thai agricultural worker who was killed during the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Ran Gvili, an Israeli citizen, is now the last person whose remains have yet to be returned. Gvili was a police officer who helped people escape the Nova music festival massacre; he was later killed while fighting at another location.
Since the first phase of the Israel-Hamas cease-fire took effect on Oct. 10, Hamas has returned 20 living hostages and the remains of 27 others in exchange for the bodies of hundreds of Palestinians. Both sides have accused each other of violating the truce, but it is still largely holding.
Israel confirmed on Wednesday that it plans to reopen the Rafah border crossing “in the coming days” to allow Palestinians to leave Gaza for Egypt. However, the crossing will only be opened one way until Gvili’s remains are released, meaning that any Palestinians who leave the war-torn territory before then will not be allowed to return home. The Egyptian government has demanded that the crossing be immediately opened both ways to prevent an influx of refugees from permanently settling in the country.
Under investigation. It’s been a rough week for the U.S. Defense Department. On Tuesday, the Pentagon’s watchdog found that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put U.S. personnel and their mission at risk when he used the Signal messaging app in March to discuss sensitive information about a looming military strike against Yemen’s Houthis. “[I]f this information had fallen into the hands of U.S. adversaries, Houthi forces might have been able to counter U.S. forces or reposition personnel and assets to avoid planned U.S. strikes,” the 84-page report said.
Although the evaluation into the so-called Signalgate scandal recognized that the defense secretary has the authority to declassify intelligence, it stated that Hegseth violated Pentagon policy by using his personal device for work purposes. Such findings could bolster Democratic calls for Hegseth to resign.
The report comes as Hegseth is already facing congressional investigations into the decision in September to carry out a second strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean after two people appeared to have survived the initial assault. On Thursday, Navy Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, who ordered the second attack under Hegseth’s command, held a classified briefing with lawmakers about the double tap.
Odds and Ends
Escargot is an essential part of classic French cuisine despite how divisive its taste can be. That makes last week’s heist of 990 pounds of fresh and frozen snails particularly alarming for one family in northeastern France, who now have almost nothing to sell ahead of prime escargot season, which begins later this month. The theft (worth more than $100,000) may not be as lucrative as France’s other major recent Ocean’s Eleven moment, but it has certainly caught the attention of local authorities, who have yet to find a suspect.
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