It is telling that US secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to India includes a stop at the Jamnagar oil refinery. This visit’s significance extends well beyond bilateral energy cooperation. Over the past few years, the US has increasingly weaponised energy and trade, while China has leveraged its dominance over critical minerals, electric vehicle components and manufacturing exports to exercise strategic influence over global supply chains. Energy, trade and technology have become tools of geopolitical power. For India, energy security can no longer be defined simply by assured access to imported oil and gas. It must encompass control over critical technologies, resilient supply chains, and domestic industrial capabilities. Otherwise, the transition to clean energy risks replacing one form of strategic dependence with another.

The war in West Asia is the latest reminder of what reliance on fossil fuel imports can cost. India imports close to 88% of its crude oil requirements, while around half of its natural gas consumption comes from imports. Even before the current disruption, India’s fossil fuel import bill stood at over $180 billion. As things stand, despite crude imports falling 18%, India’s crude oil import bill has risen 26% year-on-year in the first quarter of FY 2026-27. India’s energy transition must, therefore, be treated as fundamental to its energy security. The objective must be to build an energy system that is affordable, reliable, diversified, secure and increasingly domestic.

India has already made enormous strides towards this goal. In June 2025, the country crossed 50% of installed electricity capacity from non-fossil sources, five years ahead of its Paris commitment. India’s current non-fossil capacity has passed 300 GW, including about 168 GW........

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