Modi meets Putin in Russia on first visit since Ukraine war

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to arrive in Russia on Monday, with the president walking a fine line between maintaining long-standing relations with Moscow and pursuing closer security ties with the West.

This is Modi’s first visit since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine and since he returned to power as head of the world’s most populous country last month.

“I look forward to reviewing all aspects of bilateral cooperation with my friend President Vladimir Putin and exchanging perspectives on a range of regional and global issues,” Modi said in a statement.

“We want to play a supporting role for a peaceful and stable region.”

Moscow remains a major supplier of oil and weapons to India at cheap prices, but the Kremlin’s isolation from the West and its burgeoning friendship with Beijing are impacting its time-honored partnership with New Delhi.

Western powers have also cultivated relations with India in recent years, using it as a bulwark against China and its growing influence in the Asia-Pacific region, while at the same time urging the country to keep its distance from Russia.

Modi last visited Russia in 2019 and received Putin in New Delhi two years later, weeks before Russia began its offensive against Ukraine.

India has since refrained from explicitly condemning Russia and abstained from United Nations resolutions rebuking Moscow.

But the conflict between Russia and Ukraine also claimed human victims for India.

New Delhi said in February that it was urging the Kremlin to send back some of its citizens who had signed up for “support jobs” with the Russian military. It had previously been reported that some of them had been killed when they were forced to fight in Ukraine.

Moscow’s increasing relations with China are also cause for concern.

Washington and the European Union accuse China of selling components and equipment that have strengthened the Russian military industry – allegations that Beijing strongly denies.

China and India are bitter rivals and compete for strategic influence in South Asia.

India is part of the Quad group with the USA, Japan and Australia, which is positioning itself against China’s growing assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region.

New Delhi and the Kremlin have maintained close relations since the Cold War, and Russia was long India’s largest arms supplier.

But Ukraine has put a strain on Russia’s arms supplies and India is now forced to look for other sources of weapons – including developing its own arms industry.

According to the Stockholm Peace Research Institute, Russia’s share of Indian arms imports has declined significantly in recent years.

At the same time, India became one of the largest buyers of Russian oil, opening up a much-needed export market for Moscow after it was cut off from traditional buyers in Europe.

This has dramatically changed energy relations, saving India billions of dollars while strengthening Moscow’s war chest.

India’s monthly imports of Russian crude oil “rose eight percent in May to the highest level since July 2023,” according to commodity tracking data compiled by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

However, this also meant that India’s trade deficit with Russia rose to just over $57 billion in the last fiscal year.

From Russia, Modi will travel to Vienna. It is the first visit by an Indian head of state to the Austrian capital since Indira Gandhi in 1983.

bc/bc