Opinion | India-Russia 2.0: From Strategic Friendship To Partnership For A Multipolar World

As geopolitics turns more transactional, India and Russia are expanding ties beyond defence and energy into trade, technology, connectivity and strategic autonomy.

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India-Russia relations are entering a consequential new phase. For decades, the relationship has been described in the familiar language of “traditional friendship", but that phrase, while historically accurate, no longer adequately captures the strategic depth or contemporary possibilities of the partnership.

In an increasingly fragmented international system, India and Russia are attempting something more ambitious: to transform a resilient political relationship into a diversified economic, technological and geopolitical partnership.

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The recent meeting of External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov in Moscow offers an important window into this transition.

Co-chairing the 27th Session of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation, the two sides discussed trade, energy, defence, connectivity, labour mobility, technology and industrial cooperation.

Jaishankar’s observation that the partnership has demonstrated “resilience and adaptability" is particularly significant. The defining characteristic of India-Russia relations today is not nostalgia. It is adaptability.

The relationship has survived enormous changes in the international system because both countries have repeatedly demonstrated an ability to distinguish their long-term interests from temporary geopolitical pressures. The institutional framework itself has deep roots: the India-Russia Intergovernmental Commission was established in 1992, providing a mechanism for systematically monitoring bilateral economic and commercial cooperation.

The most visible transformation has occurred in energy. Russia has become a crucial supplier of crude oil to India, with India now the second-largest importer of Russian oil. New Delhi’s position has consistently been that such purchases are primarily determined by energy security, affordability and the requirements of a population of 1.4 billion. In a world where energy has become an instrument of geopolitical competition, India’s insistence on securing affordable supplies is not merely an economic calculation; it is an expression of strategic autonomy.

This becomes particularly important as Western governments increasingly employ tariffs, sanctions and other economic instruments to influence the behaviour of countries dealing with Moscow. India, however, has demonstrated that strategic autonomy does not mean strategic isolation. New Delhi can cooperate with Washington, maintain strong relationships with Europe, deepen engagement with the Indo-Pacific and simultaneously preserve a substantive relationship with Moscow.

That ability to maintain multiple partnerships is one of India’s greatest geopolitical assets.

Yet the future of India-Russia relations cannot depend overwhelmingly on oil and defence. The next........

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