Putin's India visit

https://www.aviation-defence-universe.com/putins-india-visit-a-strategic-reset-in-india-russia-relations/ Putin’s India Visit: A Strategic Reset in India Russia Relations • A Renewed Partnership: How Putin’s India Visit Reshapes Global Geopolitics By Jai Kumar Verma New Delhi. 10 December 2025. For two and a half days India was cynosure of global eyes. Even global power centres were closely watching the Modi–Putin meeting in Delhi, with leaders across the Western world—including U.S. President Donald Trump—keenly observing its tone, outcomes and strategic messaging. The engagement carried significance far beyond bilateral ties, coming at a time when New Delhi’s balancing act between major powers has become central to global geopolitics. The Author Russian President Vladimir Putin’s December 4–5, 2025 state visit to Delhi for the 23rd India Russia Annual Summit, marked a significant reinforcement of the long-standing strategic partnership between Moscow and Delhi. During Putin’s visit, top-level talks with Prime Minister Modi covered trade, energy, defence and technology, while both sides pledged to deepen cooperation across multiple sectors and lay out a roadmap to expand bilateral ties through 2030. The visit, the first by Putin to India since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, was widely seen as a defining moment in the evolving relationship between Moscow and Delhi. For decades, India Russia relations have rested heavily on defence cooperation and energy imports, nevertheless, this meeting sought to transform the relationship, shifting the emphasis from reactive reliance to proactive, diversified cooperation across economy, energy, defence and technology. A central outcome of the summit was a strategic economic roadmap aiming to expand and diversify bilateral trade. The bilateral trade between India and Russia in the financial year 2024-25 was $68.7 billion, nonetheless both the countries fixed the target to enhance the annual trade volume to US$ 100 billion by 2030. The urgency of this shift stems from a long-standing imbalance. While bilateral trade increased, the bulk of it reflects India’s heavy imports, especially discounted Russian crude oil, coal, fertilisers, and diamonds. In contrast, Indian exports to Russia remain modest approximately US$ 4.9 billion. Hence both countries decided to open up multiple export avenues including Indian pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, agricultural products, plastics, chemicals, textiles, and IT services. Experts note these sectors are currently underexplored given Russia’s large unmet demand. Energy security remains a key pillar of the partnership. During the visit, Putin reaffirmed Russia’s commitment to ensuring uninterrupted oil and fuel supplies to India, even amid ongoing western pressure and U.S.-led sanctions. Beyond oil, the two sides agreed to deepen cooperation in civil nuclear energy. The ongoing nuclear power plant project at Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu, where two of six reactors are already operational, will be expanded. Discussions were also held on small modular reactors (SMRs), floating nuclear plants, and peaceful nuclear applications in areas such as medicine and agriculture. This expanded energy and nuclear partnership bolsters India’s long-term energy security and offers Russia an economic outlet beyond hydrocarbons. Defence cooperation remains important, but with a strategic twist. During the visit, Russia reiterated potential offers including advanced platforms like the fifth-generation stealth fighter jet Su-57, and other modern systems. However, formal deals on high-end systems (like S-500 missiles or the Su-57) were conspicuously absent. Rather than rushing into headline-grabbing procurements, the emphasis seems to be on long-term cooperation, potential joint production, and localisation under India’s “Make in India” framework. This cautious approach suggests that India wants to balance its historic defence dependence on Russia while preserving flexibility, given its growing engagement with Western defence partners. Beyond energy, trade and defence, the summit laid the groundwork for cooperation in pharmaceuticals, education, tourism, and even labour mobility. Russian firms expressed interest in importing more Indian manufactured goods and services; in turn, Russia intends to absorb more Indian skilled workers, especially in sectors like IT, manufacturing, and engineering, hence it was decided to simplify labour migration. Additionally, there are plans to explore manufacturing hubs in Russia using Indian technology, such as a Russian Indian pharmaceutical facility in Russia’s Kaluga region to produce advanced medicines, including anti-tumour drugs. India and Russia also signed new maritime and transport agreements to deepen cooperation in freight corridors such as the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC), the Chennai Vladivostok Corridor, and importantly the Northern Sea Route (NSR). Under the same deal, both sides agreed to train Indian seafarers to navigate “polar and Arctic waters.” There is also a proposal under discussion to jointly build “Arctic-class” ships (ice-class cargo/tanker/LNG vessels) which would be able to operate in harsh Arctic conditions. On the defence / logistics side, under a pact ratified by Russia’s parliament, the Reciprocal Exchange of Logistics Support (RELOS), both sides would allow the use of each other’s military ports, airbases, logistic facilities, etc., which could include operations in the Arctic / Northern Sea Route region. Educational and cultural ties are also slated for expansion, and Russia aims to deepen its soft-power presence in India, for instance via the launch of the Russian broadcasting network’s bureau in India to reach Indian audiences. Russia watchers argue that Putin’s visit marks a qualitative shift in the India Russia relationship. No longer merely a supplier-customer dynamic rooted in arms sales and crude imports, the renewed agenda charted in Delhi seeks a more balanced, diversified, and sustainable partnership. With more Indian exports to Russia, greater energy stability, deeper coordination on nuclear power, and potential joint manufacturing both sides aim for a relationship that can stand the test of changing global pressures. For India, this means leveraging Russian ties while avoiding over-dependence. For Russia, it means reducing vulnerability to Western sanctions by cultivating reliable Eastern partners. The visit carries strong symbolic value to the West. By recommitting to Russian oil, nuclear cooperation, and defence-industrial collaboration despite ongoing US sanctions and tariffs imposed on Indian goods, India and Russia jointly demonstrated their resolve to resist external pressure and preserve strategic autonomy. Indeed, Chinese and Russian media hailed Delhi visit as proof that neither nation is isolated and that ties between non-Western powers remain robust. For the United States, which has increasingly courted India as a security partner in the Indo-Pacific region and has pressed Delhi to reduce dependence on Russian energy and arms, the reaffirmed India–Russia cooperation is a signal that India will not subordinate its strategic interests to external demands. The renewed closeness between India and Russia holds particular significance in the context of regional rivalries. For Moscow, re-engaging with Delhi, rather than aligning exclusively with China, reinforces its strategic autonomy. Putin’s visit signals that Russia doesn’t intend to become a junior partner to Beijing. For India, stronger ties with Russia can act as a strategic counterbalance to China’s influence, especially given long-standing border tensions with Beijing and China’s growing sway in Russia due to sanctions. Therefore, this visit could subtly reshape the strategic triangle of India, Russia and China. Rather than Russia tilting decisively toward China, New Delhi’s renewed partnership mode demonstrates a more nuanced, multipolar alignment, giving all three players more manoeuvrability, and denying any single power dominance. At the same time, Moscow and New Delhi’s closer partnership isn’t necessarily bad for China, because a stronger non-Western bloc (Russia + India) undermines the economic and geopolitical dominance of Western powers, a goal that also aligns with China’s interest in a multipolar world President Putin’s visit to India has impact on the neighbouring countries, especially those aligned with either China or the West. India’s augmented strategic autonomy may influence their policy planning. Countries like Pakistan may perceive increased risk if India obtains advanced defence capabilities especially Su-57 jets or renewed S-400/S-500 cooperation. Smaller states in South Asia or Central Asia may recalibrate their diplomatic outreach, balancing between Washington, Moscow, and New Delhi. Further, Russia’s increasing openness to Indian goods, labour, and investment could spur greater linkages between Indian industry and Eurasian markets. While the Delhi summit opened promising new pathways, some challenges remain. The trade imbalance & dependence of India on Russian imports in energy and raw materials vs low exports cannot be corrected overnight. Diversifying exports to Russia will take time, investment, and overcoming logistical and payment hurdles. India will have to face Western pressure & sanctions. As Russia remains under the heavy sanctions, payment mechanisms and financial transactions between India and Russia remain complicated. Although there are efforts to settle trade in rupees and rubbles, the long-term stability of these mechanisms is uncertain. There is uncertainty in defence procurement as despite talk of advanced weapons like Su-57 and S-500, no formal deal was signed. Given delays, cost overruns, and India’s own push for domestic defence manufacturing, actual procurement may not match expectations. Not only this Russia’s deepening ties with China, and India’s growing closeness with the U.S. and its Indo-Pacific partners, create a complex balancing act. Any shift in global alignments for example, changes in U.S. policy, Russia China dynamics, or China’s assertiveness could strain this triangular balance. Putin’s recent visit to India marks a conscious attempt by both Moscow and Delhi to reimagine their decades-old partnership in an era of global uncertainty. The agenda cultivated in Delhi is more ambitious than in past decades. It seeks not just to sustain, but to modernise the India Russia relationship across economy, energy, defence, labour, and culture. For India, this offers a dual advantage. Firstly, it provides energy and strategic security for a rapidly growing economy. Secondly it provides greater diplomatic space and autonomy, reducing over-reliance on any single global power bloc. For Russia, India remains an essential economic partner and a link to avoid geopolitical isolation, especially as Western sanctions continue. After the visit of Putin to India, Moscow gained a useful “escape valve” from Western sanctions: by strengthening ties with India, Russia gets access to reliable trade, energy, and labour-market partners beyond China. So, broadly: Russia is using the visit to show it still has choices. During the summit, the two leaders invoked “From Pahalgam to Crocus City Hall” to symbolically link a recent terrorist-attack in Pahalgam (in India) and a past terrorist attack in Russia using this to underline shared resolve against terrorism. At the same time, the visit sends a powerful signal globally, that even amid deep global polarization, countries like India and Russia are willing to chart their own course. This may strengthen multipolarity, reduce overdependence on any one alliance, and encourage regional players to approach foreign policy with flexibility over dogma. How Delhi balances this renewed closeness with Moscow, while deepening ties with the West and managing regional rivalries, will define South Asia’s geopolitical contours in the coming years. For Washington and key European capitals, the meeting was an important indicator of how India would navigate its longstanding defence relationship with Russia while deepening its strategic partnership with the West. The fact that the encounter drew such focused attention from Western leaders reiterated India’s growing weight on the world stage and the recognition that New Delhi’s choices now shape not just regional dynamics but the broader global balance of power too. (Jai Kumar Verma is a Delhi-based strategic analyst and member of United Services Institute of India and The Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. The views in the article are solely the author’s. He can be contacted at editor.adu@gmail.com)