Foreign News
Oil, defence and geopolitics: Why Putin is visiting Modi in Delhi
Russian President Vladimir Putin is starting a two-day visit to India, where he will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and attend an annual summit held by both countries.
Delhi and Moscow are expected to sign a number of deals during the visit, which comes months after the US increased pressure on India to stop buying Russian oil.
It also comes as US President Donald Trump’s administration holds a series of talks with Russia and Ukraine in an attempt to end the war.
India and Russia have been close allies for decades and Putin and Modi share a warm relationship. Here’s a look at why they both need each other – and what to watch for as they meet.
Why are relations with India key for the Kremlin?
Well, for a start, look at the numbers:
- a population of nearly a billion and a half.
- economic growth exceeding 8%. India is the world’s fastest growing major economy.
That makes it a hugely attractive market for Russian goods and resources – especially oil.
India is the world’s third largest consumer of crude oil and has been buying large volumes from Russia. That wasn’t always the case. Before the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, only 2.5% of India’s oil imports were Russian.
That figure jumped to 35% as India took advantage of Russian price discounts prompted by sanctions against Moscow and Russia’s restricted access to the European market.
India was happy. Washington less so.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration slapped an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, arguing that by purchasing oil from Russia, India was helping to fund the Kremlin’s war chest. Orders from India for Russian oil have since dropped. President Putin will be keen for India to keep buying.
For Moscow, weapons sales to India are another priority and have been since Soviet times. Ahead of Putin’s visit, there were reports that India plans to purchase state-of-the-art Russian fighter jets and air defence systems.
Russia, hit by a labour shortage, also sees India as a valuable source of skilled workers.
But there’s geopolitics at play, too.
The Kremlin enjoys demonstrating that Western efforts to isolate it over the war in Ukraine have failed.
Flying to India and meeting Prime Minister Modi is one way of doing that.
So is travelling to China and holding talks with Xi Jinping, as Putin did three months ago. He met Modi on the same trip. The image of the three leaders smiling and chatting together sent a clear message that, despite the war in Ukraine, Moscow has powerful allies who support the concept of a “multi-polar world”.
Russia lauds its “no limits partnership” with China.
It is just as vocal about its “special and privileged strategic partnership” with India.
That is a stark contrast to Moscow’s strained relationship with the European Union.
“I think the Kremlin is sure that the West, including Europe, totally failed,” believes Novaya Gazeta columnist Andrei Kolesnikov.
“We are not isolated, because we have connections to Asia and the Global South. Economically, this is the future. In that sense Russia returned as the main actor in these parts of the globe, like the Soviet Union. But even the Soviet Union had special channels and connections to the US, West Germany and France. It had a multi-vector policy.
“But now we are totally isolated from Europe. This is unprecedented. Our philosophers always said that Russia was a part of Europe. Now we’re not. This is a big failure and a big loss. I’m sure that part of Russia’s political and entrepreneurial class is dreaming of returning to Europe and of doing business not only with China and India.”
This week, though, expect to hear about Russia-India friendship, trade deals and increased economic cooperation between Moscow and Delhi.
Putin’s visit to Delhi is coming at a crucial time for Modi and India’s global ambitions.
India-Russia ties go back to the Soviet era and have endured irrespective of the changing geopolitical landscape.
Putin has arguably put more time and energy into this relationship than other Russian leaders before him.
As for Modi, despite coming under intense pressure from Western governments to criticise Russia over its war in Ukraine, he maintained that dialogue was the only way to resolve the conflict.
This was India’s “strategic autonomy” at play – with Modi occupying a particular place in the geopolitical order where he held close ties with Moscow while maintaining his relationship with the West at the same time.
That worked – until Trump returned to the White House. India-US ties have hit an all time low in recent months as the two countries have failed to resolve the tariff deadlock.
In this context, Putin’s visit assumes more significance for Modi than ever before because it will test India’s geopolitical autonomy. He will be walking the proverbial diplomatic tightrope here.
Modi would want to show Indians at home and in the wider world that he still counts Putin as his ally and hasn’t given into pressure from Trump, whom he has earlier called his “true friend”.
But he has also faced pressure from his allies in Europe – just this week, the German, French and UK ambassadors in India wrote a rare joint article in a major newspaper criticising Russia’s stance on Ukraine.
And so, Modi will have to ensure that the strengthening of India-Russia ties does not overshadow ongoing trade talks with the US and his partnership with Europe.
“For India, the challenge is strategic balance – protecting autonomy while navigating pressure from Washington and dependence on Moscow,” said the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), a Delhi-based think-tank.
Modi’s other priority will be to unlock the potential of bilateral trade between India and Russia.
Analysts have often said that the economic relationship between the two strong allies has underperformed for decades.
Their bilateral trade rose to $68.72bn at the end of March 2025, up from just $8.1bn in 2020. This was largely due to India sharply increasing discounted Russian oil purchases. This has skewed the balance heavily in favour of Russia and that is something Modi would want to correct.
With Indian firms already reducing oil purchases from Russia to avoid sanctions from Washington, the two countries will look at other areas to boost trade.
Defence is the easiest pick. India’s defence imports from Russia reduced to 36% between 2020 and 2024, from the peaks of 72% in 2010-2015 and 55% between 2015 and 2019, according to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
This was largely due to India’s attempt to diversify its defence portfolio and boost domestic manufacturing.
But a closer look at these numbers tells a different story. Several Indian defence platforms still rely heavily on Russia. Many of its 29 air force squadrons use Russian Sukhoi-30 jets.
India’s limited armed conflict with Pakistan in May this year proved the indispensable role of Russian platforms like the S-400 air defence systems in its armed forces but it also showed the vulnerabilities that the country urgently needs to fix.
Reports suggest that India wants to buy the upgraded S-500 systems and the Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jet. Pakistan’s purchase of the China-made J-35 fifth-generation stealth fighter has not gone unnoticed in Delhi, and it would want to secure a comparable jet as soon as possible.
But Russia is already facing a shortage of critical components due to sanctions and the war in Ukraine. The deadline to deliver some units of the S-400 have reportedly been delayed to 2026. Modi will seek some guarantees on timelines with Putin.
Modi would also want Russia’s economy to open space for Indian products to fix the massive trade imbalance.
“Consumer-oriented and high-visibility categories remain marginal: smartphones ($75.9m), shrimp ($75.7m), meat ($63m) and garments at just $20.94m underscore India’s limited penetration in Russia’s retail markets and electronics value chains despite geopolitical churn,” GTRI said.
Modi aims to position Indian goods in Russia’s market, especially once the war ends and Moscow is reintegrated into the global economy.
He would seek to lessen trade dependence on oil and defence, aiming for a deal that strengthens ties with Russia while leaving room to deepen relations with the West.
“Putin’s visit is not a nostalgic return to Cold War diplomacy. It is a negotiation over risk, supply chains and economic insulation. A modest outcome will secure oil and defence; an ambitious one will reshape regional economics,” GTRI said.
[BBC]
Marco Rubio has assured European leaders the US does not plan to abandon the transatlantic alliance, saying its destiny “will always be intertwined” with the continent’s.
The US secretary of state told the Munich Security Conference: “We do not seek to separate, but to revitalise an old friendship and renew the greatest civilisation in human history.”
He criticised European immigration, trade and climate policies, but the overall tenor of the closely-watched speech was markedly different to Vice President JD Vance’s at the same event last year, during which he scolded continental leaders.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was “very much reassured” by Rubio’s remarks.
Rubio, the Trump administration’s most senior diplomat, said it was “neither our goal nor our wish” to end the transatlantic partnership, adding: “For us Americans, our home may be in the Western Hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe.
“And I am here today to leave it clear that America is charting the path for a new century of prosperity, and that once again we want to do it together with you, our cherished allies and our oldest friends.”
However, he repeated several criticisms repeatedly levelled at Europe by the Trump administration, including describing immigration policies as a threat to civilisation, and saying a “climate cult” had taken over economic policy.
On trade, he said Europe and the US had “made mistakes together” by adopting a “dogmatic vision of free and unfettered trade”.
He repeated familiar calls from the US for Europe to invest more in defence, saying: “We want allies who can defend themselves so that no adversary will ever be tempted to test our collective strength.”
In response, von der Leyen said: “Rubio is a good friend, a strong ally. And this was, for me, very reassuring to listen to him.”
She continued: “We want a strong Europe. And this is, I think, the message of today.”
Elsewhere in his half-hour address, Rubio said the system of international co-operation “must be rebuilt” and singled out the UN for particular criticism, saying it had “played virtually no role” in resolving the Gaza and Ukraine conflicts.
He also said the organisation was “powerless to constrain the nuclear programme” of Tehran.
In recent weeks, US President Donald Trump has threatened strikes on Iran if a deal to curb its nuclear programme can be reached, as negotiations between the two intensify.
A second round of talks will be hosted by Oman in Geneva next week, the Swiss foreign ministry said on Saturday.
Outside the conference, an estimated 200,000 protesters held a rally against the Iranian government, local police report.
The demonstrators denounced the country’s leadership, following the government crackdown on January’s protests in which thousands of people were killed.
Rubio also said the US did not know whether the “Russians are serious about ending the war” in Ukraine, before adding: “But we’re going to continue to test it.”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky told the conference later on Saturday that no one in Ukraine believed his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin would leave the country alone, describing the Russian leader as a “slave to war”.
Zelensky has come under pressure from the White House to hold presidential elections, which have been suspended while the country is under martial law.
Asked about a Financial Times report that his administration was planning for elections as soon as May, Zelensky said it was “something new to me” and repeated that “nobody supports elections during the war”.
He said that Ukraine would need “two months of ceasefire” and “security infrastructure” to safely conduct elections.
[BBC]
Two Britons and one French person have died in an avalanche in the French Alps on Friday.
The British pair were part of a group of five people skiing off-piste with an instructor in the Manchet valley, near Val d’Isère, a spokeswoman for the resort told the BBC.
The French national was skiing alone when the avalanche struck at 11:30 local time (10:30 GMT), Albertville prosecutor Benoit Bachelet said in a statement announcing the deaths.
Another British person has minor injuries, he added.
A spokesperson for the Foreign Office told the BBC they are aware of the death of the two British men and they are “in contact with the local authorities and stand ready to offer consular assistance”.
A manslaughter investigation has now been launched by the Albertville public prosecutor’s office and will be carried out by CRS Alpes mountain rescue police.
The ski instructor, who was unharmed, tested negative after taking alcohol and drug tests, according to Bachelet.
Val d’Isère already experienced avalanches this winter, with one person dying in the resort of Tignes nearby last month.
France’s national weather service had issued a red alert for avalanche risk across the Savoie region on Thursday, which was then lifted on Friday. But the risk level remained high across the Alps with “very unstable snow cover”.
The avalanche comes in the wake of Storm Nils, which passed through France the day before, leaving between 60cm and 100cm of snow, the weather service said.
There have been a number of fatal avalanches in the region in recent weeks, including the death of a British man off-piste skiing at the La Plagne resort in January.
“We have had some very complicated, very unstable snow since the beginning of the season,” Luc Nicolino, slopes manager at La Plagne, told AFP.
“It’s a kind of mille-feuille with many hidden, fragile layers.”
[BBC]
Two Mexican ships bearing humanitarian aid have docked in the harbour of Cuba’s capital Havana, as the United States continues its efforts to cut the island off from outside fuel supplies.
On Thursday, pedestrians on Havana’s seawall watched as the ships, one of which was the Papaloapan, unloaded white pallets on shore.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum addressed the delivery in her morning news conference, promising that more help was on the way.
“We are sending different forms of help, different forms of support,” Sheinbaum said. “Today, the ships arrive. When they return, we are going to send more support of a different type.”
She also described her country’s role as “opening the doors for dialogue to develop” between Cuba and the US, but she insisted that maintaining Cuba’s sovereignty would be paramount among her priorities.
Since January, the administration of US President Donald Trump has sought to cut off the oil supplies that power Cuba’s energy grid and other critical infrastructure.
The campaign is part of a long-running series of sanctions imposed by the US on the Caribbean island nation, stretching back to the Cold War.
But the latest effort, under Trump, has experts at the United Nations warning of an imminent humanitarian “collapse” in Cuba, as oil supplies dwindle.
The oil embargo began on January 3, when Trump authorised a US military operation to attack Venezuela and abduct its then-leader, President Nicolas Maduro, and his wife Cilia Flores.
[Aljazeera]
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