New Delhi, India \u2013<\/strong> Under a thick blanket of smog in the world\u2019s most polluted city, the leaders of Russia and India put on a display of diplomatic resilience, projecting a message that their bilateral partnership remains insulated from widening global fractures.<\/p>\n At the Russia-India annual bilateral summit in New Delhi \u2013 against a backdrop of intensifying Western pressure, punctuated by recent United States tariff threats and the ongoing negotiations to end Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine \u2013 the two leaders framed their relationship as a stabilising force.<\/p>\n While Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the two countries\u2019 relations as \u201csteadfast like a pole star\u201d, Russia\u2019s President Vladimir Putin showered praise on his Indian counterpart for resisting \u201cexternal pressure\u201d and investing in the shared bond.<\/p>\n In a rare break from protocol, Modi was present at the airport in Delhi to receive Putin on Thursday night, and shared the car ride back to the Indian PM\u2019s residence for dinner, in what has come to be known as \u201climo diplomacy\u201d as Putin often uses his Aurus limousine to hold talks.<\/p>\n On Friday, memorandums of understanding were exchanged between multiple ministers from each side, expanding trade and cooperation in various sectors, from energy to agriculture and pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n The deals, Modi said, would take \u201cIndia-Russia economic partnership to new heights\u201d under the India-Russia economic cooperation programme until 2030. The countries have agreed on an ambitious trade target of $100bn.<\/p>\n And, in a major signal to the West, Putin said: \u201cRussia is ready for uninterrupted shipments of fuel to India.\u201d Importing Russian crude has put India in a geopolitical bind and soured relations with the US, which believes it is financing the war in Ukraine. Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump hit India with an additional trade tariff of 25 percent \u2013 bringing the total to 50 percent on Indian goods exported to the US \u2013 because of its continuing purchase of Russian oil.<\/p>\n So, what were the main takeaways from this summit?<\/p>\n The summit provided a platform for the two countries to reach a slew of trade agreements spanning jobs, health, shipping and chemicals.<\/p>\n However, analysts said the summit was more important as a show of political messaging.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest takeaway from the summit is the signalling that neither side has any intention to dilute this relationship, and is ready to withstand any external pressure,\u201d said Harsh Pant, a geopolitics analyst at New Delhi-based think tank, the Observer Research Foundation.<\/p>\n Moreover, Pant said: \u201cThe attempt is to build the economic partnership, beyond oil and defence.\u201d And without that, he added, \u201cthe bilateral relationship is not responsive to today\u2019s realities\u201d.<\/p>\n Robinder Sachdev, president of the Imagindia Institute, a Delhi-based think tank, said that the summit holds \u201cextreme importance for the greater willingness on the part of both Russia and India to turbocharge this relationship\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth sides want to increase their engagement beyond just government-to-government deals, in oil and defence sectors, and boost people-to-people ties,\u201d said Sachdev. \u201cThat can be the biggest string in this bilateral relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n Neither leader took questions after their media statements, which Putin concluded by saying that the Russian delegation was pleased with agreements that will \u201cdeepen\u201d the bilateral partnership.<\/p>\n Putin added that, along with other BRICS countries \u2013 a growing bloc of emerging economies \u2013 India and Russia are promoting a \u201cmore just\u201d and \u201cmultipolar\u201d world. Putin also underlined the close bond that he shared with Modi by referring to their \u201cclose working dialogue\u201d and \u201cregular\u201d phone calls.<\/p>\n In his statement,\u00a0Modi said the two countries\u2019 \u201cEconomic Cooperation Programme\u201d is designed to diversify, balance, and make trade and investment sustainable, and further expand export, co-production, and co-innovation opportunities.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth sides are working towards the early conclusion of a Free Trade Agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union,\u201d Modi added.<\/p>\n Modi also said that increasing the \u201cconnectivity\u201d between Moscow and New Delhi is a \u201cmajor priority for us\u201d, noting that energy security has been a \u201cstrong and important pillar\u201d of bilateral relations.<\/p>\n Modi also mentioned the opening of two new Indian consulates in Russia last month, and introduced two new 30-day visa schemes that would be made available for Russian tourists in India soon.<\/p>\n Modi said he had discussed the war in Ukraine with Putin and conveyed that India has \u201cstood for peace since the beginning\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIndia and Russia have long supported each other, and worked shoulder to shoulder in the fight against terrorism,\u201d said Modi, mentioning the April attack in Kashmir and the attack on Crocus City Hall in Moscow in 2024.<\/p>\n Russia and India have held an annual bilateral summit since 2000, for which the Indian prime minister visits Russia one year, and the Russian president returns the visit the following year. It was paused following Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and only resumed in 2024 when Modi visited Russia.<\/p>\n Ultimately, the Russian president\u2019s 30-hour flying visit to Delhi sends a clear message to other world leaders amid growing pressure on him to conclude a peace deal with Ukraine. Putin is saying: \u201cMoscow is not alone, and the efforts to isolate the Kremlin have failed\u201d, experts say.<\/p>\n Ukraine\u2019s allies in Europe and the US had hoped New Delhi would persuade Putin to agree to a peace deal. However, India did not call on Russia to end the war, although PM Modi appeared to reiterate his earlier position that \u201cthis is not an era of war\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIndia is on the side of peace,\u201d the Indian prime minister said during discussions between the two leaders at Hyderabad House in Delhi on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cThe world should return to peace, and we support every effort towards peace,\u201d said Modi, adding, \u201cIndia-Russia relations should grow and touch new heights.\u201d<\/p>\n Expressing his gratitude to Modi, Putin said, \u201cThe two nations also have relations in the military sphere, in space development, artificial intelligence, and other areas \u2026 and we intend to move forward in all these areas.\u201d<\/p>\n New Delhi is currently caught in a precarious geopolitical equation, a reality that has starkly tested the scope of India\u2019s foreign policy.<\/p>\n On one side, India faces an increasingly coercive United States and its punitive trade tariffs. The Trump administration accuses India of effectively financing Putin\u2019s war machine in Ukraine by buying crude oil.<\/p>\n The war in Ukraine, however, has tested the friendship between Moscow and New Delhi \u2013 a relationship that goes back decades.<\/p>\n Since its independence from Britain in 1947, India has avoided becoming locked into formal alliances with any superpower, leading the non-aligned movement during the Cold War. In reality, however, it drifted closer to the then-Soviet Union from the 1960s.<\/p>\n Since the end of the Cold War, India has deepened strategic and military ties with the US while trying to keep its friendship with Russia afloat.<\/p>\n India remains the top buyer of Russian arsenal. And India\u2019s dependence on the Russian military sector was recently made apparent during New Delhi\u2019s four-day clashes with Pakistan, with real-time reliance on Russian platforms such as the S-400 missile system and Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighters.<\/p>\n Investing in ties with Moscow and hosting Putin at this time allows New Delhi some leverage in a fragmented global order and maintains what it calls \u201cstrategic autonomy\u201d to pursue its \u201cmulti-alignment\u201d foreign policy.<\/p>\n The Delhi summit allowed the leaders to double down on that \u201cneither side wants to bring this relationship down, and both sides want to invest diplomatic capital,\u201d said Pant, of the ORF.<\/p>\n \u201cThe more Trump and his administration target India, the more it makes the case in India as to why the relationship with Russia is important,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The Russian president said that despite Western sanctions against Moscow and the imposition of the White House\u2019s punishing tariffs on India for importing Russian oil, the bilateral energy cooperation largely \u201cremains unaffected\u201d.<\/p>\n Putin told broadcaster India Today that Washington continues to buy Russian nuclear fuel for power plants.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is also fuel; uranium for the reactors operating in the US. If the US has the right to buy our fuel, why shouldn\u2019t India have the same privilege?\u201d said the Russian president. \u201cThis question deserves thorough examination, and we stand ready to discuss it, including with President (Donald) Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n India-Russia trade has undergone a major shift since 2022, ballooning from a modest $10bn to a record nearly $69bn this year, primarily fuelled by New Delhi\u2019s appetite for discounted Russian crude oil.<\/p>\n However, these numbers remain lopsided: Indian exports, largely pharmaceuticals and machinery, stand at roughly $5bn, resulting in a widening $64bn trade deficit.<\/p>\n Furthermore, the latest official data from India\u2019s commerce ministry reveals that India reduced its crude imports from Russia by 38 percent in value compared with last year, down from a record high $5.8bn last year to $3.55bn this October.<\/p>\n Despite all this, Russia still accounts for just above 30 percent of India\u2019s total oil imports by value and volume.<\/p>\n While noting that the import numbers have come down, Putin stressed that trade remains \u201cunaffected by current conditions, fleeting political swings or the tragic events in Ukraine\u201d and added that Russian businesses had built a solid and efficient commercial relationship with India, one based on mutual trust.<\/p>\n Putin landed in New Delhi with an entourage which included Andrei Belousov, his defence minister, and a large delegation from business and industry, including top executives of Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport.<\/p>\n Belousov met his Indian counterpart, Rajnath Singh, at New Delhi\u2019s Manekshaw Centre on Thursday, before the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit.<\/p>\n While Singh looked to further the Indian government\u2019s aim to build capacity in its indigenous defence industry, the Russian defence minister emphasised \u201cthe Russian defence industry\u2019s [readiness] to support India towards becoming self-reliant in the field of defence production\u201d, a joint statement read.<\/p>\n A Russian delegation also expressed interest in importing fishery and meat products from India and resolving market access issues, the Indian government said in a separate statement following a meeting between agriculture ministers on the sidelines.<\/p>\n India exported fishery products worth $7.45bn last year; however, a smaller share of $127m headed to Russia.<\/p>\n Geopolitical analysts noted that the summit leaves New Delhi hoping for a quicker peace deal on Ukraine, in order to free its strategic partner from global pressure.<\/p>\n And when that happens, \u201cpeace in the region would provide a window of opportunity for India to move fast and expand exports and business deals with Russia\u201d, said Sachdev. \u201cAnd beat Western nations to the race, who would also eventually return to Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n New Delhi, India \u2013 Under a thick blanket of smog in the world\u2019s most polluted city, the leaders of Russia and India put on a display of diplomatic resilience, projecting a message that their bilateral partnership remains insulated from widening global fractures. At the Russia-India annual bilateral summit in New Delhi \u2013 against a backdrop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explained"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Modi](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-05T093531Z_2096572935_RC29AIAUUWBJ_RTRMADP_3_INDIA-RUSSIA-1764932101.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C515&quality=80\")
India and Russia affirmed their deep ties<\/h2>\n
![\"Modi](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-05T092604Z_1467307034_RC25AIA9VJTQ_RTRMADP_3_INDIA-RUSSIA-1764932208.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
India did not pressure Russia over Ukraine<\/h2>\n
![\"modi](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AFP__20251205__877G4BC__v1__MidRes__IndiaRussiaPolitics-1764931967.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
India is walking a tightrope between Russia and the West<\/h2>\n
![\"Modi](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-05T065445Z_191480038_RC26AIAOMWDK_RTRMADP_3_INDIA-RUSSIA-1764932094.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
Putin was defiant over US pressure on oil<\/h2>\n
![\"putin\"](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2025-12-05T084808Z_1288280898_RC28AIAS1YPU_RTRMADP_3_INDIA-RUSSIA-1764932333.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C502&quality=80\")
What else was discussed on the sidelines of the summit?<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"