India’s announcement of a $500 million purchase of Russian warships on Tuesday again illustrates why the U.S. must build stronger relations with the South Asian nation. Absent our close attention to India’s interests and concerns, New Delhi will gravitate closer to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The scale of Putin’s success in cultivating India is certainly impressive. This most recent purchase follows India’s $5.4 billion agreement last month to buy the S-400 air defense system. India and Russia have also jointly developed a supersonic cruise missile with launch platform flexibility. All of this activity ignores U.S. sanctions that are expressly designed to prevent Chinese and Russian arms exports.