INDIA, RUSSIA TIES

BLOOMBERG - Oct 22, 2024 - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed his country’s growing relations with Russia as he met President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the BRICS summit of emerging powers.

“In the past three months, my visiting Russia twice demonstrates our close relationship and deepening friendship,” Modi said Tuesday in televised remarks. Putin also praised the “strategic partnership” between the two countries.

India’s friendship with Russia, which has become a major oil supplier to the south Asian nation, has increasingly irritated US President Joe Biden’s administration as Putin’s invasion of Ukraine continues for the third year. While New Delhi has argued for a peaceful settlement of the conflict, it’s turned into the second-biggest supplier of restricted technologies to Russia, helping to fuel the Kremlin’s war machine.

Putin is playing host at the summit to the biggest gathering of world leaders since he ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, highlighting the challenge to the West’s efforts to isolate him over the war. Leaders of 32 countries are expected to attend the three-day gathering in the city of Kazan.

The US’s ability to pressure India is limited by Washington’s competing strategic priority of nurturing closer ties with the country as a counterweight to China in Asia.

Tuesday’s talks marked the second meeting between Putin and Modi in just over three months. In July, Modi embraced Putin and hailed the Russian leader as a “friend” during a visit to Moscow that coincided with a deadly Russian missile strike on a children’s hospital in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.

Despite discomfort in New Delhi over the worst fighting in Europe since World War II, India has avoided censuring Russia for invading Ukraine, abstaining at United Nations votes on the issue.

“We have been in constant touch regarding the situation between Russia and Ukraine, and as I have said before, we believe that the solution to these issues should be through peaceful means,” Modi said, adding that he and Putin would discuss the conflict at their meeting. “We support the resumption of peace and stability as soon as possible.”

India’s government has been discussing a long-term crude-supply deal with Russia. Oil Minister Hardeep Puri told reporters Tuesday that Modi will have very fruitful meetings in Moscow but declined to comment on what was expected on the energy front.

As Russia offers deeper discounts on its oil amid restrictions imposed by the US and its Group of Seven allies, India has increased its purchases of Russian crude more than 20 times compared to pre-war levels. Recent imports reached just shy of 2 million barrels a day.

India saved $13 billion by importing cheaper crude oil from Russia over the previous 23 months, according to a study by ICRA, the rating agency, published in April.

Putin is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi later Tuesday. 

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