Masahiro Matsumura is professor of international politics and national security at the faculty of law of St. Andrew's University in Osaka, and a Taiwan Fellow at the Taiwan Center for Security Studies in Taipei.
As NATO leaders met at a summit in Washington in July, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was making a state visit to Moscow, where a public embrace with Vladimir Putin betrayed his strong personal relations with the Russian president. Modi was bestowed by Putin with the Order of St Andrew the Apostle, Russia's highest civilian honor.
