The recent Moscow visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has generated ample interest because of various implications for India’s foreign policy, including building closer relations with China. The visit coincides with the changes in global geopolitics being focused on with regard to restructuring the Indo-Russian relationship. In this process, it underpins strategic calculus and complicated diplomacy at a time when the world is both multivariate and has interests intertwined with overtones of interdependency.
India shares with Russia a warm and deep relationship that dates back to the days of the Cold War. The two strategic partners interact in defense cooperation, energy cooperation, and cultural cooperation. This is viewed as a cornerstone of India’s foreign policy strategy, whatever the term may be, for the strategic depth and diplomatic support on global platforms.
Modi’s visit to Moscow, in a nutshell, was essentially to reiterate and further strengthen the time-tested strategic partnership in dimensions across defense, energy, trade, and people-to-people connections. Those two days saw high-level meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and top officials on further developing bilateral cooperation and ways of solving regional and global issues interesting to both countries.
The enhanced focus at Modi’s visit was on changing geopolitical equations in Asia around the enlargement of the Chinese influence base and assertive conduct in the Indo-Pacific. India is increasingly apprehensive of strategic moves by China, including territorial disputes, military advantage buildup, and economic footprints in South Asia and beyond.
Indian engagement with Russia, in this backdrop, assumes added significance as Moscow remains a key balancer of China’s influence in Eurasia and beyond. Russian support for Indian membership in international forums and increased cooperation in defense technology transfer and joint strategic initiatives add to Indian efforts to balance China’s regional ambitions.
Economically, India and Russia are looking to expand trade and investment cooperation by leveraging the areas of strength both countries exhibit in the areas of technology, energy, and manufacturing. In this field, both have pinpointed nuclear energy, space research, pharmaceuticals, and agriculture as areas of joint work and mutual growth.
Even if tenable in strategic terms, defense cooperation is also the sheet anchor of Indo-Russian relations, with India now being one of the biggest importers of Russian military hardware, from advanced fighter jets and submarines to missile defense systems. Domestic defense production with technology transfer is the mantra the Modi government has been emphasizing to supplement its drive for armed forces modernization and augmentation of its national security capabilities.
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More broadly, India and Russia have cooperated in the arena of regional and global issues, such as the fight against terrorism, problems of the climate, and multilateral diplomacy, as members of international formats including BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), SCO, and the United Nations, where they work out positions on key international issues.
Modi’s visit to Moscow also coincides with a critical juncture in India’s recalibration of its own foreign policy priorities as the regional dynamics in its immediate neighborhood undergo changes against the backdrop of global shifts in the balance of power. The perceptible rise of China as an economic and military juggernaut in the Asia-Pacific has nudged India towards diversifying its strategic partnerships with countries of similar concerns and aspirations to ensure its national interests and stability in the region.
In this context, the role of Russia as a trusted partner and strategic ally becomes much more important in the geopolitics of New Delhi. The diplomatic backing, military cooperation, and shared interests of both Moscow and New Delhi in counterterrorism, counter-extremism, building peace, and maintaining stability in Afghanistan and Central Asia most of the time work together for both parties’ strategic objectives, respectively.
But Modi’s reaching out to Moscow did not signal a return to a zero-sum approach to dealing with Beijing. Indeed, this approach to dealing with China forms part of India’s more nuanced foreign policy in developing balanced engagements with major powers in the world—countries like the United States, Russia, and China—based on strategic autonomy, mutual respect, and shared interests.
In the future, India-Russia relations will continue to deepen across various facets against the backdrop of an approach based on economic reasoning, cultural exchange, and strategic cooperation. In terms of the dynamically changing geopolitical landscape that is undergoing a concisely changing attitude, there is a strong likelihood that the two countries will further explore new projections of collaboration while dealing with the challenges of global uncertainties and conflicts in intricate regions.
In other words, Modi’s visit to Moscow reflects the strategic necessity for India to come closer to Russia in order to maintain its partnership with it, especially amid changing global power equations and, more so, China’s growing influence in Asia. The visit highlights a fact: the resilience and strategic depth of Indo-Russian ties remain intact and firmly rooted in mutual interests in fields of defense cooperation, economic growth, and regional stability. As India works in the direction of safeguarding its national interests and fostering a multipolar world order, engagement with Russia remains at the vortex of its foreign policy in global dynamics.
