By February 1959, the Soviet-assisted metallurgical plant in Bhilai was operational. Nikita Khruschev came to India again in February 1960, followed by President Rajendra Prasad's visit to Moscow in November 1960, and Nehru in September 1961. Two months later, in December Leonid Brezhnev, then chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR, was in India.
Various pacts on agricultural and industrial cooperation were explored during these visits, but it was only in the 1960s that the India-Soviet military relationship took off, when India ordered a large number of aircraft for its air force. This was stepped up after the 1962 Sino-Indian border war.
Though Nehru was the promoter of the Non-alignment Movement, India's obvious closeness to the Soviet Union made Washington wary. After the 1965 war with Pakistan, Moscow invited Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Pakistan President Ayub Khan in January 1966. Shastri died in Tashkent soon after the summit.
Photograph: Prime Minister Nehru gets a rousing reception in Samarkand, June 1955. Photograph: Courtesy and copyright the Russian News and Information Agency, RIA Novosti. Used with permission.
Also see: PM's Moscow visit: Low-key but solid
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