In his first visit since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Putin heads to India to hold a strategic meeting with Narendra Modi

• Research states: The Europeans believe that war with Russia is possible
• impasse: Ahead of Ukraine peace talks, Putin says if Europe wants war against Russia, we will be ready

Putin arrived at Palam Air Base in New Delhi, where he was received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two leaders, who have a cordial relationship, went to a state dinner aboard the same car, and will hold a series of events, including a bilateral meeting, on Friday.

– The main thing is that the visions of the two countries for the future of our planet are very similar. “This is the most important thing,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia 1.

Russia and India have maintained close relations for decades, inherited from the time of the late Soviet Union. The Russians, for example, are the largest suppliers of military equipment to the Indians, and recently, Russia has begun to look favorably on Indian labor, in order to address the growing shortage of workers. Politically, there are similarities between Putin and Modi in their governing styles, which include measures considered undemocratic, such as the persecution of opponents.

• After criticism of the war: Russia bans the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch from operating on its territory

But this historical relationship took on new features after Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, in February 2022. With Western markets closed to energy commodities, especially oil, Moscow found an excellent client in New Delhi, who was also attracted to the generous discounts offered on the price of a barrel, as a way to compensate for political risks. Before the conflict, Russian oil accounted for just 2.5% of Indian purchases, and in 2025, the figure reaches 35%.

However, the imposition of 50% tariffs by the US government, linked to Russian oil purchases, and the inclusion of the two largest Russian oil companies on the US sanctions list have led to a decline in imports, and Putin must send a clear and attractive message to Modi: continue to buy our oil, despite remorse (and pressure from the White House).

– There may be some reduction in energy purchases under pressure from the United States – Nandan Unnikrishnan of the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi told AFP. – But the general direction of relations will be maintained because both countries need each other at the strategic level.

• 1380 days of war: Russia equips Soviet-era ‘stupid bombs’ with jet engines and expands scope of attacks on Ukraine

Smiling photos with Modi – like the one taken in September, at another bilateral meeting – are for Putin a way to show the West that he is not so isolated. Although a long-awaited second meeting with US President Donald Trump was not held, the Russian leader maintained his schedule of visits abroad, even with a limited list of destinations.

In September, he went to China to attend the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in the Pacific, and in August, he went to Alaska to meet with Trump, in addition to trips to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus. In the case of the trip to India, the 2023 international arrest warrant issued by the ICC is not a cause for concern, as India is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that governs the court. For the past three years, Putin has avoided multilateral events, such as G20 summits, due to the threat of arrest and other leaders’ discomfort with his presence at the table.

“I think the Kremlin is convinced that the West, including Europe, has completely failed,” says Novaya Gazeta columnist Andrei Kolesnikov, heard by the BBC. We are not isolated, we have connections with Asia and the Global South. Economically, this is the future. In this sense, Russia is back as the major player in these parts of the world, as the Soviet Union did.

For Modi, despite criticism from the West and some allies in Asia, welcoming Putin is also a sign of political strength on the international stage. Within the logic of his “strategic independence,” the Indian Prime Minister shows that he has not yielded to American pressure, even in the face of tariffs, to cut ties with Moscow. According to the Russian press, the agenda includes plans to start joint production of Sukhoi Su-57 fighters, supply S-400 air defense systems, and lease a Russian submarine for 10 years, at a cost of $2 billion.

“For India, the challenge is one of strategic balance: protecting autonomy while dealing with pressure from Washington and dependence on Moscow,” the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), a New Delhi-based think tank, said in an article.

• analysis: New US sanctions target the Russian economy, but Putin’s government has prepared for a coup

For India, keeping the Russians close helps contain what it sees as the biggest threat to its existence: China.

“From an Indian perspective, despite all the talk about Russia being a great and loyal friend, the real reason this relationship is important is geography,” Aparna Pandey, director of the India and South Asia Initiative at the Hudson Institute, told the British newspaper The Guardian. China remains the biggest threat to India in the near future, and since the Soviet Union, India has always relied on Russia as a continental counterweight against China.

A few thousand kilometers from New Delhi, representatives of the United States and Ukraine are meeting to discuss the peace plan proposed by the White House about two weeks ago, which is subject to reviews and adjustments from one side to the other. On Tuesday, American negotiators went to Moscow to meet with Putin for about five hours and left with no commitments, just encouraging words. Now they are conveying the new Russian considerations to the Ukrainians.