India-Russia Summit: A Defiant Step Toward Multipolar World Order

The Geopolitical Context

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forthcoming visit to New Delhi in December 2025 for the 23rd Indo-Russian Annual Summit represents a watershed moment in contemporary international relations. This marks Putin’s first trip to India since the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict, a period during which Moscow has faced unprecedented diplomatic isolation and economic constraints from Western powers. Despite this pressure, India has emerged as Russia’s most reliable partner, sustaining robust bilateral trade, defence cooperation, and energy flows at an extraordinary scale.

The summit is expected to significantly deepen collaboration in multiple strategic areas including defence manufacturing, long-term energy agreements, technology transfers, and alternative payment mechanisms designed to circumvent Western sanctions. For New Delhi, this engagement represents a deliberate strategy to maximize geopolitical leverage by maintaining strong ties with a sanctioned major power. For Moscow, the partnership provides crucial economic relief, political legitimacy, and strategic reassurance amid intense Western pressure.

The Strategic Partnership in Detail

India’s relationship with Russia spans multiple dimensions that collectively form a comprehensive strategic partnership. The trade volume between the two nations reached $68.7 billion in the 2024-25 fiscal year, with India emerging as Russia’s largest buyer at $63.8 billion, primarily comprising oil, coal, fertilizers, and defence components. This trade imbalance heavily favors Moscow while providing India with discounted resources that support its development objectives.

Defence cooperation remains the cornerstone of this relationship, with Russia accounting for 68-70% of India’s military imports. The partnership includes sophisticated weapon systems such as Su-30MKI fighters, T-90 and T-72 battle tanks, S-400 missile systems, aircraft carriers, and the jointly developed BrahMos supersonic missile. Beyond mere procurement, the relationship involves comprehensive technology transfers, dual-use components, and joint production programs that significantly enhance India’s defence capabilities.

Energy security forms another critical pillar, with Indian imports of Russian crude oil increasing by 600% since 2022. India now accounts for 38% of Russia’s oil exports, providing Moscow with crucial revenue streams while securing energy resources at favorable terms for its growing economy.

Western Reaction and Hypocrisy

The Western response to India-Russia relations has been characterized by blatant hypocrisy and double standards. The United States government has labeled India’s actions as “destabilizing” while President Trump threatened 100% tariffs on Indian imports, calling India a “Kremlin laundromat.” The European Union has similarly criticized India’s military exercises with Russia, claiming that New Delhi’s friendship with Moscow impedes deeper strategic cooperation.

This Western outrage reveals the inherent bias in the so-called “rules-based international order” - rules that consistently favor Western interests while punishing those who dare to pursue independent foreign policies. The West’s condemnation ignores historical context: that India-Russia relations predate current conflicts and are rooted in decades of mutual cooperation and shared strategic interests.

A principled Stand for Sovereignty

India’s engagement with Russia represents not complicity in conflict but rather a principled assertion of strategic autonomy. In a world where Western powers routinely violate international norms through illegal invasions, regime change operations, and economic coercion, India’s position demonstrates maturity and independence in foreign policy decision-making.

The characterization of India as an “enabler” of Russian military operations deliberately ignores the complex realities of global geopolitics. India’s abstention from UN resolutions and continued economic engagement with Russia reflect a sophisticated understanding of national interest rather than blind allegiance. This approach allows India to maintain relationships with multiple power centers while avoiding subservience to any single bloc.

The Multipolar Imperative

India-Russia relations fundamentally challenge the unipolar world order that Western powers have enforced since the Cold War’s end. This partnership represents the emerging multipolar reality where Global South nations increasingly dictate terms rather than accept dictates from Washington or Brussels.

The summit underscores how nations like India and Russia are creating alternative frameworks for international cooperation that bypass Western-dominated institutions. The development of alternative payment mechanisms, energy networks, and defence cooperation frameworks demonstrates the creative resilience of nations facing Western pressure.

Western criticism of India’s position fundamentally misunderstands the nature of contemporary geopolitics. Nations of the Global South are no longer willing to sacrifice their development needs and strategic interests to satisfy Western moral posturing. The selective application of international rules - where Western violations are ignored while others are punished - has lost credibility among emerging powers.

Toward a Balanced Future

India’s navigation of complex geopolitical currents demonstrates remarkable strategic sophistication. While maintaining robust relations with Russia, India continues engagement with Western powers through forums like the QUAD, demonstrating that multipolarity involves complexity rather than binary alignments.

The upcoming summit represents not a choice between East and West but rather India’s commitment to pursuing its national interests through diversified partnerships. This approach acknowledges that in an interconnected world, security and prosperity require engagement with multiple power centers rather than subordination to any single bloc.

As the international system continues its transition toward multipolarity, partnerships like India-Russia will become increasingly important counterweights to Western hegemony. These relationships create space for alternative visions of global governance that better reflect the interests and perspectives of the Global South.

Conclusion: A New World in Formation

Putin’s visit to India symbolizes the birth pangs of a new international order - one where nations previously relegated to the periphery now claim their rightful place at the center of global decision-making. The Western reaction to this summit reveals anxiety about losing control over a system they have dominated for centuries.

India’s position represents not merely national interest but a broader challenge to imperial structures that have long dictated terms to the developing world. By maintaining independent relations with Russia despite Western pressure, India demonstrates that the era of colonial and neo-colonial domination is ending.

The emergence of truly sovereign nations capable of pursuing independent foreign policies based on their civilizational values and development needs represents the most significant geopolitical development of our time. India-Russia relations exemplify this new reality - one where the Global South writes its own rules rather than accepting rules imposed by others.