External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Moscow this week, and his meeting with President Vladimir Putin, was a reminder of a relationship India has consistently declined to sacrifice despite years of Western pressure. Putin’s warm reception, and Jaishankar’s own emphasis on growing cooperation in trade, energy, fertilisers and nuclear power, underline a partnership that has proven remarkably resilient even as the war in Ukraine has reshaped global alignments.
India’s position has been consistent since the war began: it will not be lectured into abandoning a relationship built over decades, one that has delivered discounted energy, defence supplies and diplomatic support across multiple administrations. That calculus has served India’s immediate economic interests, particularly through cheap Russian crude that helped cushion domestic inflation during a volatile period for global energy markets. It has also preserved a defence relationship that, while diversifying, still anchors a significant share of India’s military hardware.
But sustaining this balance is not costless. The United States has previously demonstrated a willingness to use tariffs and sanctions-adjacent pressure over India’s Russian oil purchases, and European partners have quietly voiced discomfort with New Delhi’s studied neutrality on the war. As Western nations, including a newly assertive Britain under Prime Minister Andy Burnham, deepen military support for Kyiv, India’s position astride both camps will face growing scrutiny, not less, particularly if the war grinds on without resolution.
India’s argument, that strategic autonomy allows it to pursue its own interests without being conscripted into any bloc, remains coherent and defensible. Non-alignment, updated for a multipolar world, has genuine strategic logic for a country still building out its economic and military capacity. But coherence is not the same as cost-free. New Delhi will need to keep demonstrating, through forums like the Intergovernmental Commission that Jaishankar highlighted this week, that the Russia relationship delivers concrete value, even as it simultaneously deepens ties with Washington, Europe and the Quad. The balancing act has worked so far. Whether it remains sustainable will depend less on India’s intentions and more on how much longer the war, and the pressure it generates, continues.
— DA Editorial Desk