India - Russia Relations

Introduction

Russia has been a reliable and long-standing partner of India for a very long time. India's foreign policy has relied heavily on the steady development of India-Russia relations, and the two countries cooperate across politics, defence, trade, energy, science and culture.

Strategic Partnership

Since the signing of the Declaration on the India-Russia Strategic Partnership in October 2000, during President Putin's visit to India, India-Russia relations have taken on a qualitatively new dimension, with increased cooperation in nearly every area of the bilateral relationship, including politics, security, defence, trade and economy, science and technology, and culture.

Numerous organised discussion channels operate at both the political and official levels of the Strategic Partnership to ensure regular interaction and follow-up on cooperation initiatives.

During the Russian President's December 2010 visit to India, the Strategic Partnership was upgraded to a Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership.

Political Relations

The Annual Summit Meeting between India's Prime Minister and the President of the Russian Federation is the highest-level structured platform for dialogue in India's strategic alliance with Russia. The venue alternates between India and Russia.

President Vladimir Putin visited New Delhi on 6 December 2021 for the 21st India-Russia Annual Summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Alongside the summits, there are various high-level interactions between the joint commissions and working groups of both states, which keep cooperation moving between summits.

Defence and Security Cooperation

India and Russia have had a long and productive defence relationship.

Their military-technical cooperation has progressed from a simple buyer-seller partnership to one based on collaborative research, development and manufacture of contemporary defence technologies and systems.

Defence Support

This form of historic partnership can be seen in the BrahMos Missile System, as well as the licenced manufacturing of SU-30 aircraft and T-90 tanks in India. Key milestones include:

• An agreement on cooperation in the fabrication of spare parts for Russian and Soviet-origin military equipment, signed during the 20th Annual Bilateral Summit in Vladivostok in September 2019.
• Agreements reached during the 17th Annual Summit on the supply of S-400 air defence systems, the construction of frigates under Project 1135.6, and a joint venture to manufacture Ka-226T helicopters in India.
• The joint venture Indo-Russian Rifles Pvt. Ltd., announced on 3 March 2019 in Amethi, for the production of AK-series assault rifles at Ordnance Factory Korwa under the Make in India programme.

In addition, the armed forces of the two countries hold annual exchanges and joint training exercises.

Military Exercises

The first ever Tri-Services exercise, INDRA 2017, took place in Vladivostok from 19 to 29 October 2017.

Indra Navy-2018, a bilateral naval exercise, took place in the Bay of Bengal from 13 to 16 December. From 10 to 19 December 2019, India and Russia held the Joint Tri-Services Exercise INDRA 2019 at Babina, Pune and Goa.

Representatives from the Indian Armed Forces and the Russian Federation's Eastern Command took part in these exercises, which aimed to build field, naval and air skills and to strengthen coordination between the two militaries.

On 13 April 2018, the India-Russia Military Industrial Conference held its third round in Chennai.

Trade and Economic Relations

Leaders on both sides have selected the strengthening of trade and economic cooperation as a priority area. An older target aimed to raise bilateral investment to 50 billion dollars and bilateral trade to 30 billion dollars by 2025.

For several years, however, trade lagged behind these ambitions. A global economic slowdown, and Russia's long dispute with the West over the Ukraine crisis, pushed Russia towards import substitution and reduced its overall foreign trade, which in turn affected trade with India.

Nuclear Energy

Russia is a critical ally of India in the peaceful use of nuclear energy. It recognises India as a nuclear-weapons-capable country with an unblemished non-proliferation record.

India's Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and Russia's Rosatom signed a Strategic Vision in December 2014 to deepen collaboration in the peaceful uses of atomic energy.

Nuclear Power Plant

The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) in Tamil Nadu is being built with Russian assistance. Units 1 and 2 are already operational, and further units are being constructed in stages.

Together with the Bangladesh Ministry of Science and Technology and Rosatom, DAE also signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding to help build the Rooppur nuclear power plant in Bangladesh, showing how the partnership now reaches into the wider region.

Space Cooperation

• Satellite launches, the GLONASS navigation system, remote sensing and other societal applications are all areas where the two countries cooperate peacefully.
• A Memorandum of Understanding on Joint Activities in the Field of Human Spaceflight was signed between ISRO and ROSCOSMOS, supporting India's Gaganyaan human spaceflight programme.

Science and Technology Cooperation

• The Working Group on Science and Technology, the Integrated Long Term Programme (ILTP) and the Basic Science Cooperation Programme are the main institutional mechanisms for bilateral science and technology cooperation, while the two countries' Science Academies support inter-academy exchanges.
• Newer initiatives include the India-Russia Bridge to Innovation, cooperation in telemedicine, a Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), the GIAN scheme, and the Russia India Network (RIN) of Universities.

Cultural Cooperation

Around 20 Russian institutions, including well-known universities and schools, teach Hindi regularly to roughly 1,500 Russian students.

• Apart from Hindi, Russian institutions teach Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Urdu, Sanskrit and Pali.
• Many Russians take a keen interest in Indian dance, music, yoga and Ayurveda. Each month the Jawaharlal Nehru Cultural Centre (JNCC) offers classes in yoga, dance, music and Hindi to about 500 students.

Namaste Russia

Since 2015, India and Russia have held frequent cultural exchanges under a reciprocal agreement.

Groups of Russian artists have travelled to India for Festivals of Russian Culture, while Indian troupes have toured Russian cities as part of the Namaste Russia programme.

Scholarships

Russia has been a particularly active partner country for ITEC scholarships, with around 76 Russians benefitting in 2018-19.

The number of ICCR scholarships awarded to Russian students each year has also been gradually increasing.

Why it still matters today

The notes above count the summits up to the 21st, held in New Delhi in 2021. Since then the relationship has been tested harder than at any time in decades, and it has become one of the most talked-about stories in world affairs. If you follow international relations, this is a live case study in how a friendship survives outside pressure.

The turning point was Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Western countries put heavy sanctions on Russia and many stopped buying its oil. Russia then offered its crude oil to buyers like India at a discount. India, which imports most of the oil it uses, bought a lot of it. Before 2022 Russia sold India almost no crude; by the 2024-25 financial year Russia had become India's single largest supplier of crude oil, making up more than a third of India's oil imports.

That one change rewrote the old trade numbers in these notes. Instead of the earlier goal of 30 billion dollars by 2025, two-way trade jumped to a record of about 68 billion dollars in 2024-25, up from roughly 10 billion dollars before the war, almost all of the rise coming from energy. At their meeting in Moscow in July 2024, the 22nd Annual Summit, the two leaders set a new target of 100 billion dollars in trade by 2030.

This closeness has a real cost abroad. In August 2025 the United States, under President Donald Trump, put an extra 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods specifically because India keeps buying Russian oil, taking the total tariff to about 50 per cent. India's Ministry of External Affairs called the move unfair, unjustified and unreasonable, and argued that keeping energy affordable for 1.4 billion people is a national priority. It is a clear example of how the choices a country draws on a map can pull it in opposite directions, a theme you can explore further in borders and geopolitics.

The partnership answered that pressure in person. On 4 and 5 December 2025, President Putin travelled to New Delhi for the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit, his first visit to India since the war began. He promised India uninterrupted supplies of fuel, the two sides agreed an economic cooperation programme running to 2030, and, exactly as these notes describe, they agreed to shift defence ties further away from simple buying and selling towards joint research and manufacturing under India's push for self-reliance. For more study notes on the wider world, browse our resources library.

Sources

1. Al Jazeera, Key takeaways from the Putin-Modi talks in Delhi, 5 December 2025
2. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Guns and Oil: Continuity and Change in Russia-India Relations
3. Al Jazeera, Modi makes first Russia visit since the Ukraine invasion, 8 July 2024
4. Al Jazeera, US raises India tariffs to 50 per cent over Russian oil purchases, 27 August 2025

Key takeaways

• India and Russia maintain a Strategic Partnership established in 2000 and upgraded to a Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership in 2010, covering politics, defence, trade, energy, science, and culture.
• Defence cooperation has evolved from a buyer-seller relationship to collaborative research, development, and manufacture, producing systems like the BrahMos Missile, SU-30 aircraft, T-90 tanks, S-400 air defence systems, and Ka-226T helicopters.
• India and Russia conduct regular joint military exercises, including the tri-services INDRA exercises in 2017 and 2019, and bilateral naval exercises like Indra Navy-2018.
• Trade and economic targets of $50 billion investment and $30 billion trade by 2025 have not been met, partly due to the global economic slowdown and Russia's disputes over Ukraine.
• Nuclear energy cooperation is a key pillar, exemplified by the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu, while space cooperation includes satellite launches, GLONASS, and support for India's Gaganyaan programme.

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