India’s relationship with Russia involves the oil trade, which Delhi buys at reduced prices. Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who showed no particular interest in the Lucerne summit and sent a low-level delegation. For experts, however, it is difficult to anticipate a further deepening of relations with Moscow.
New Delhi () – At the international peace summit in Ukraine, held in Lucerne, Switzerland, on June 15 and 16, India abstained from signing the final communiqué, along with a few other countries, including South Africa, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Thailand. Once again, New Delhi has shown that it does not want to give up its relations with Russia, despite pressure from Western allies.
In reality, there were no great expectations about the conference, convened by Switzerland with the support of Ukraine. Russia had not been invited and China and Pakistan (its ally) rejected the invitation.
India, on the other hand, sent a low-level diplomatic delegation (despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s request otherwise) headed by Pavan Kapoor, who until a few months ago was India’s ambassador in Moscow: “Our participation in The summit and continued engagement with all stakeholders aims to understand different perspectives, approaches and options to find a way forward towards a sustainable resolution of the conflict. In our opinion, only options acceptable to both sides can lead to lasting peace,” he stated.
But in the final document of the conference, a paragraph was also dedicated to the need for Moscow to participate in the talks: “We believe that achieving peace requires the involvement and dialogue between all parties,” it states. The statement then addresses three main questions: nuclear security, food security and the release of civilian prisoners. But to sit at the same negotiating table, kyiv demands the liberation of all territories occupied by Russia, including Crimea, while Moscow demands that Ukrainian troops withdraw from the regions annexed by Russia: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. All of them conditions that are far from being possible.
Earlier this month, following the confirmation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election victory, Zelensky called Delhi to congratulate the three-time prime minister and took the opportunity to invite a high-level delegation to the peace summit. In response, Modi tweeted: “Happy to talk to President Zelensky. I thank you for your warm wishes on the historic victory of the National Democratic Alliance in the general election. We confirm our common desire to further strengthen the broad partnership between India and Ukraine.” A week later the two leaders met at the G7 in Italy and exchanged “views on the situation in Ukraine. “The Prime Minister communicated that India continues to support the peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy,” reported the spokesperson for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.
However, despite the statements, since the invasion of February 24, 2022, India has always avoided condemning Russia, from which it continues to buy oil at a low price. In April, Indian imports of Russian oil reached its highest level in nine months thanks to steep discounts and after Indian refineries briefly suspended operations due to Washington’s imposition of new sanctions on the Russian shipping company Sovcomflot.
In fact, the war in Ukraine has allowed Moscow and New Delhi to strengthen economic relations that the two countries had failed to cement during the Cold War. But there is no shortage of problems: according to expertsif on an economic level business is going very well, on a diplomatic level India is involved in two relations – between Russia and the West and between Russia and China – which it continues to balance, but with increasing difficulty, especially because it fears the growing Moscow’s dependence on Beijing.
A recent study of the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri) states that “the future of relations between Russia and India remains uncertain.” He continues: “India does not support Russia’s military actions in Ukraine and maintains a neutral position for pragmatic reasons. It is not willing to undermine ties with Russia, but remains hesitant to expand cooperation.” And in fact “the intention to include new areas of economic engagement comes primarily from the Russian side, but current obstacles do not allow Russian companies to increase significantly its presence in the Indian market. In other words, the relationship between Moscow and Delhi is stable, but increasingly looks like stagnant cooperation.
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