The public sentiment is predominantly negative towards the shift from Russian to Western defense partnerships. Many users express a strong emotional attachment to Russia, highlighting historical ties and trust. There's widespread skepticism and distrust towards the U.S. and Western nations, linked to past experiences where the West reportedly failed to support India. The sentiment emphasizes maintaining national sovereignty and independent decision-making, with a strong preference for continuing ties with Russia. While some acknowledge the necessity of diversifying partnerships, there is significant apprehension about losing autonomy and shifting alliances with more self-reliant approaches encouraged.

India

Russia

United States

Accurate_Code_3419

TL;DR - India’s intensifying embrace of Russia, as outlined by *The Economist*, is a high-stakes pact with a partner that offers both lifelines and liabilities. Like a moth drawn to a flickering flame, India has struck $17 billion in deals—a $13 billion oil supply pact with Rosneft and a $4 billion radar system purchase—securing energy and defense assets while risking entanglement in Russia’s shadow. This move reflects India’s “multi-aligned” dance, leveraging Moscow’s weapons and oil to offset China’s rise and Western ambivalence. Yet, the partnership teeters on a knife’s edge: tightened U.S. sanctions, faltering Russian arms reliability, and the looming specter of Vladimir Putin’s visit risk tarnishing India’s neutralist posture. As New Delhi navigates this perilous terrain, it must reckon with the fragility of tethering its ambitions to a waning power beset by economic decay and geopolitical unpredictability—a Faustian bargain whose cost may outlast its immediate gains.

telephonecompany

India need to look beyond Russia in long term. Russia has lagged behind in military technology. Ukraine war has demonstrated that despite manifold numerical superiority, Russia is struggling to occupy more than 20 percent of Ukraine. India’s main enemy is China which has leapfrogged in terms of technology.

nuvo_reddit

idk man. last I checked it's not Russia that supplied weapons-grade Plutonium to Pakistan. It is not Russia that sent a carrier group to support Pakistan during the war for Bangladesh. It is not Russia that refused GPS data access to India during Kargil.

StayingUp4AFeeling

what an effing elitist title. I had to google to understand the self-proclaimed moral high horse economist is sitting on!!

its only "Faustian" for those who don't like black and brown people to pursue their agenda. For others its just a regular pact.

vitara_brezza

Indias most important export is its own children.   What does that tell you about india?

gokayaking1982

The amount of d**kriding that OP is doing for Americans would put washington "analyst" to shame. India and Russia partnership is no more Faustian than Saudi-USA, Qatar-USA or even Pakistan-USA. 

It makes perfect diplomatic sense to deepen ties with the only UNSC member which has backed India consistently by essentially let us use it's veto and shared tech which let India hasten development of it's SSBNs (not the type of tech you can buy) and never stopped nuclear fuel supplies post our nuclear test.

Russia and India are in similar positions Geopolitically, both are 2nd rate independent powers who don't want to avoid becoming true vassals like the other 2nd rate powers, both are just too big to fit into that role. They shall remain close partners for decades to come.

golden_sword_22

I understand anyone who dislikes the US, but when you look deep into these countries you will see that China and especially Russia are inherently worse. Russia is literally tied to the most ruthless dictators on earth including North Korea, Syria (used to), Libya, Iran and many more. Even if you dislike the US for the republicans they still have a huge democratic part of their society which gives people education, freedom and a future. In Russia you get a trench, a gulag or propaganda. There might not be a right side of history, but on that spectrum Russia is definitely worse.

Morgentau7

# India’s Faustian pact with Russia is strengthening

# The gamble behind $17bn of fresh deals with the Kremlin on oil and arms

Jan 13th 2025  
  
India’s Faustian pact with Russia is strengthening

# The gamble behind $17bn of fresh deals with the Kremlin on oil and arms

  
EVER SINCE the start of the war in Ukraine, the West has tried to persuade India to distance itself from [Russia](https://archive.is/o/R2Lr6/https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/01/12/russia-is-being-set-aflame-by-hundreds-of-arson-attacks). India has consistently rebuffed the entreaties. Its officials have pointed out—in often testy exchanges—that the Kremlin has been a stalwart friend for decades. Russia also accounts for about 65% of India’s arms imports over the past 20-odd years. Besides, they argued, India needs to nurture the relationship to offset warming ties between Russia and China, India’s chief rival.

Western officials and observers concluded that this dynamic would change over time as India became increasingly reliant on America and its allies for commercial and military partnerships. Their governments decided to strengthen economic ties and provide more advanced defence technology rather than hectoring India. Thus followed deals such as one with America in 2023 to jointly manufacture fighter-jet engines in India.

India, however, sees its future with Russia in starkly different terms, as recent developments make amply clear. First came news that Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, would visit India in early 2025. A few days later, on December 8th, India’s defence minister, Rajnath Singh, arrived in Moscow to discuss new defence deals, including the purchase of a $4bn radar system. That was followed by the two countries’ biggest-ever energy agreement, worth roughly $13bn annually. Rosneft, Russia’s state oil company, is to supply some 500,000 barrels per day of crude oil to Reliance, a private Indian refiner, for the next ten years.

India has for the past few years cheerfully bought Russian oil for less than the $60-per-barrel price cap imposed by Western sanctions, becoming in the process the world’s second-biggest buyer of the stuff after China. In 2021 just 2% of [India’s oil imports](https://archive.is/o/R2Lr6/https://www.economist.com/asia/2024/04/11/how-indias-imports-of-russian-oil-have-lubricated-global-markets) came from Russia (see chart 1). Between April 2024 and October 2024 that figure soared to nearly 40%. Indian officials estimate that the discounts yielded savings of $25bn in the year to March 2024.

So devil-worshippers made a Faustian pact with the devil.   
Why should non-devil worshippers be concerned??

Difficult_Abies8802

India has been groomed by the USSR via a huge KGB presence and malfeasance with national politics, spying and misinformation for decades. One long lasting effect is the mistrust of Sikhs and Muslims culminating in the attack on the Golden Temple in 1984.

babiha

India is so much more than this. If anything, it should be the reverse.

ONE_deedat

I don't believe the article mentions India's role in the non-aligned movement once.  Post-independence and during the Cold War India was prominent in a group of nations that didn't wish to align themselves with former colonists in the West or their communist opponents.  They wished to avoid conflict, its expense and risk so were neutral even as a democracy.

[deleted]

Even as the United States and India have moved closer as international partners, and conducted joint naval exercises, last month in the Indian Ocean, New Delhi clearly maintained a neutral stance on the global stage. Just days after completing the joint Malabar 2020 exercises with the United States Navy, as well as the navies of Australia and Japan, the Indian Navy has announced that it may hold joint drills in the Black Sea with Russia.

While Washington and New Delhi have moved closer together to counter aggression from Beijing in the Indo-Pacific, India has maintained its ties to Russia. Even as Washington has heavily courted New Delhi and sold military hardware to India, Russia has remained the main exporter of weapons to India and clearly, that isn’t likely to change anytime soon.

Am I missing half of the article?

As it doesn't actually seem to explain why they are close.  Just that:

 India and the US have completed an exercise.  

India and Russia had an exercise and India wants have an other one in the Black Sea.

India is buying four frigates from Russia.

But no mention of why India is close to Russia.  There's also a spelling mistake, poor grammar and bad writing.

&gt;**The Project 11356 frigates are armed A-190 100mm artillery guns, striking missile**, and air defense systems, including Kalibr and Shtil weapons and torpedo armament.

&gt;have a top seep of 30 knots 

I may not be brilliant at proof reading my Reddit comments before posting.  But I sure as hell double and triple check anything that's work related.  Give the reader at least a reminder of what the Kaliber and Shtil are and their capabilities.

At least mention that the Indians are leasing a SSN of the Russian Navy and one that had a rather unfortunate accident in trials.  That resulted in multiple deaths.  Mention that India's current generation of aircraft carriers are Soviet/Russian/Ukranian based.....

But most of all, explain why they are close.  As that is after all the title of the article.

Tony49UK

patb2015

Good for Armenia, that says volumes about Good quality of Indian made weapons and supplies 👍

Long_Concentrate3755

Huh, never realized that France is also one of India’s biggest export customers, especially since France already has a robust defense industry, technically the best in Europe even if Turkey has a larger army as France has a more balanced force. It’s even more of a surprise with the U.S. but I guess getting supplies is more cost efficient with India. At the very least, if France and the US are also major export partners with India’s defense industry, that should indicate that everything that Armenia is buying from India are quality weapons. I wonder if a new alliance is now starting to form between France and, India, and Armenia considering that they all have common interests in the region. Hopefully, as more time passes Armenia increases military cooperation and purchases with India, France, and the U.S.

Lettered_Olive

Forget France The US buys weapons from others? Huh?

mika4305

From what I understood I think so. Because Azerbaijan and turkey support Pakistan on the Kashmir issue. And Armenia is also in need of weapons which India has a lot of. I hope it turns into a long and prosperous partnership.

Ill-Strategy-8901

BzhizhkMard

I read the article and it was interesting, although I would put in doubt some of the points brought up. For one, one of the major points the author brings towards India being 'colder' with Armenia is that they didn't show much of an outward reaction to the Artsakh war in September in contrast to their responses in 2020. 
Now, I don't know much about how they responded back then, but them not issuing any statements of this nature isn't altogether too strange I'd say.

India's not a very present player in foreign politics, and only very recently have they begun to unfurl their wings across the continent. Add the fact that, to be frank, they wouldn't really care about Artsakh as a whole, just means to me that this is a non-issue overall.

The biggest point of contention that I can see there being the case is India's concern about Syunik and Azerbaijan's response to it and them potentially invading it. For their INTSC project they *have* expressed more interest in getting the shipments done and undertaken through Armenia, especially with the recent agreements between AM-IR with access to their ports, but I'm not too sure if we'll be the only route up north to Russia that way, or if there'll be two routes like that going both through us and Azerbaijan up to Russia. They do want to form one with us to go through Georgia and into Europe, however, and the recent conflict within Israel put a lot of countries off from the G20 summit trade route discussion they had this year, so that's a point in our favour.

If we keep up our efforts up at the rate we've been with India over the next few years, we'll hopefully manage to score one route through Iran and into us, then Georgia, and into Europe, and if we get really lucky we'll hopefully have another through us and into Russia as well. By that point we could definitely hold a special relationship with India as well, just like Greece has with them at this point.

Hope Pashinyan doesn't do something embarrassing like conceding this route to Azerbaijan instead, Jesus Christ...

Nemo_of_the_People

I'm from India. Good luck Armenia, we love you guys fighting against islamists who want you annihilated. We understand what it means to have neighbours that will destroy you at any given chance. And we admire your resilience against genocide. We as Indians have suffered throughout history. 

We also have one of the oldest Christian communities in the world just like you guys, so that also adds to the solidarity, even though most people in India are Hindu like myself.

Electronic_Drawing80

I think Armenia is a beneficiary of a strategic partnership between France and India.

India manufactures a lot of soviet-style weapon systems, ammunition, as well as cheap and solid alternatives to a lot of those weapons. India is simply a natural alternative to importing weapons from Russia, who has proven to be a hostile state.

There is something to be speculated regarding why India was so quick to start arming Armenia, and I think this has to do with efforts by France to find reliable arms supply for Armenia, since Western Europe has limited production capacity.

GuthlacDoomer

I think maybe armenia can docus on its relationship with india france and israel. 

India france are already very close partners, greece and india have already started co-operating maybe soon it would be turned into close cooperation. 
Maybe it can be a counter to turkey azerbaijan, I am not considering pakistan as its pretty much useless except for supplying terrorists or man for higher.
Pakistan would be countered by india as they are already our neighbours .
It would also depend on the chess played by armenia with russia, as russia wouldn’t appreciate france and Armenia’s growing relationship.

ShadowAtomix

No they are not, largely because Armenia is simply too small and unimportant from India's point of view. Let's be realistic here: small countries EVERYWHERE struggle with this issue. Look at the Baltics - they are similar in size as Armenia and they are permanently worried that Russia will invade them. And for good reason: if Putin invades Ukraine, he considers smaller countries to be easier victims than Ukraine. The guy acts like Hitler in 1938.

Russia and India recently had another deal agreement in regards to supply of weapons. There is also a steady stream of cheap oil/gas from Russia going into India. So, let's be realistic: Armenia as a small country needs to analyse the larger picture. India will ALWAYS prioritize e. g. Russia simply because Russia has more resources than Armenia has.

Armenia's only real chance here is to make the country as ideal as possible in regards to its economy. Everything else will not work. All "strategic" partners may abandon Armenia for outside factors. Armenia has to rely on self-resilience. That has been pointed out again and again and again, mind you.

I also think Armenia should look at production of chips and drones within Armenia. Perhaps with state funding initially (but to ensure that this becomes viable without state-supplied funds too).

shevy-java

People don't realize we haven't moved away from Russia at all. The ones supplying us weapons now are Putin's allies, Modi of India is Putins friend. Apart from them it's France, but France hasn't offered us anything significant.

hayvaynar

Time for the weekly India-Armenia love post ig

Frequent-Fig-9515

People in r/azerbaij tend to believe that its actually they who are entering strategic partnerships with India. Pretty crazy huh

India has a large and still growing expat community in western countries. I wonder how the diaspora will influence this policy in 10-20 years.

MootRevolution

India is interested in an any alliance that benefits India. It will proudly trumpet it's non aligned status while coordinating with the west to contain China and Pakistan, with Russia to acquire energy and commodities at below market, and with China to obtain direct foreign investment.

shadowfax12221

It's only natural for them to see their own benefits. The western expectation of ideological alignment does not benefit India.

abir_imtiaz

I don't know anyone in Washington would view India's attendance of a BRICS summit of which it is a founding member with dismay. It would have raised eyebrows if they didn't attend. 

Magicalsandwichpress

Not surprising at all. India has always had an incredibly consistent policy of non-alignment and strategic autonomy since their independence.

Marco1603

Westerners need to realize a few things.

India is a big and ambitious country with a colonial history and a lot of poor population to support, so you cannot expect India to tow in line to the USA like other western allied countries.

Russia is crucial to India's security strategy. India has three nuclear states around it. Two of which are hostile to India. India does not need another hostile nuclear state. Asking India to join the west in an alliance against Russia is like asking USA to join in an alliance against Canada. Not gonna happen. India, Russia and China are in a delicate balance of appeasing each other which works for everyone.

India is not anti west. As long as the west understands India's constraints in its foreign policy and doesn't expect India to just give up it's long term partners for the west, India is willing to be friendly. This is exactly what western leaders are doing, giving India leeway when it comes to Russia and working with India to contain China. 

India's foreign policy is essentially to be friendly and trade with everyone that is not attacking India's national integrity. Hence the only countries that do have bad relations with India are Pakistan and China, for obvious reasons, Turkey and Azerbaijan, who support Pakistan on Kashmir, and Canada to a lesser extent, as they give shelter to Khalistanis.

BIG_DICK_MYSTIQUE

Indian foreign policy has always been India First. That is unlikely to change any time soon. We can work with that.

Okay so Indian foreign policy of the past 50 years hasn’t changed. Color me surprised at non-news.

pancake_gofer

India is first and foremost concerned with India, just like all the other powers are first and foremost considered with themselves. At this stage, it has the most to gain from straddling East and West; it gains the economic and security benefits of both. It gains more potential leverage to use against China (and perhaps Pakistan by proxy), helping correct for the current imbalance in power. 

As India's economic position improves, it will continue to look for new ways to exert its influence. Those activities will immediately increase tensions with China while also putting stress on the Indo-Russian agreements, forcing Russia to choose between India and China (which will probably come down to whether or not it's going to contest Chinese influence in its "near abroad"). From that point, the West is the only party that can offer them both economic and security benefits. Expats may or may not influence this decision, depending on their relative share of the total "Indian population" at that point. 

But I don't think it's likely for India to fully commit to the West like, say, South Korea has. India will probably want to be a great power in its own right and that will likely entail some soft competition with the West, especially the US with its "pivot" towards East Asia. I think we're probably looking at a UK/France situation where they eventually found common cause in other wars (ironically, Russia and China), which helped accelerate the detente and eventual alliance. But that's decades out, most likely.

PausedForVolatility

This is such a biased article. There is no reason to presuppose that a Canadian outlet would of course publish something of this sort at this point in time. Lets take a look at facts for a change rather than an opinionated article that talks over and over again about an issue that sticks out as a sore thumb to Canada (not all of the West)  rather than explaining the "why" part of its ludicrous headlines - 

  
[https://www.policycircle.org/economy/india-us-trade-challenges/](https://www.policycircle.org/economy/india-us-trade-challenges/)

[https://www.gmfus.org/news/new-geopolitics-alliances-rethinking-transatlantic-engagement-global-swing-states/india](https://www.gmfus.org/news/new-geopolitics-alliances-rethinking-transatlantic-engagement-global-swing-states/india)

\&gt;The United States is a significant supplier of Indian defense equipment and India’s largest military exercise partner. The two also have bilateral agreements on logistics sharing and cooperate on intelligence, defense technology, and maritime security. 

[https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/aussenpolitik/focus-on-india/2680284](https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/en/aussenpolitik/focus-on-india/2680284)  

# &gt;We want to intensify our strategic partnership with India

[https://ifrimaps.org/en/french-elections-2022/the-geopolitical-challenges/france-and-india-strengthening-strategic-partnership-in-the-indo-pacific](https://ifrimaps.org/en/french-elections-2022/the-geopolitical-challenges/france-and-india-strengthening-strategic-partnership-in-the-indo-pacific)

\&gt;The relationship has benefited from being rather “discreet,” conducted far from media spotlights. India is widely courted, however, especially now that China is giving such cause for concern

  
[https://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/india/bolstering-our-ties-india](https://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/india/bolstering-our-ties-india)

\&gt;The Australia India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, announced in 2020, underpins the relationship, and the connections continue to grow and expand as both countries invest in its future.

  
This is the most pro-west India has ever been.

Sapriste

SS: Evan Dyer, writing for CBC, highlights India’s refusal to align with the West, with Modi’s recent meeting with Xi Jinping at the BRICS summit in Russia reinforcing New Delhi’s commitment to non-alignment, despite U.S. attempts to woo it into an anti-China coalition. Dyer notes that, although U.S.-India relations have progressed in technology and defense, recent allegations linking Indian officials to dissident murders in North America have strained the relationship. Yet, Washington appears to compartmentalise these issues to preserve its strategic partnership with India. Meanwhile, India’s strong ties with Russia, a crucial arms supplier, bolster its ability to maintain a non-aligned stance amid global tensions. According to Dyer, India’s unique position as a non-aligned power offers a diplomatic advantage, allowing it to balance relationships with rival powers and resist pressures to side with any bloc.

Well to be honest, it’s not a bad strategy. Let everyone else shoot each other and hopefully you’re the last one standing and maybe you just ally with the victor to some extent. I’m a little curious on how this will play out in the long run for India.

ITSHOBBSMA

India will only be non-aligned for as long as it has the strength to do so.

As evidenced by the most recent events - when India cannot secure its way, it will acquiesce.

If India doesn’t want an alliance, it may find itself with no one in its camp later on. 

Being self-interested only goes so far. It does not last forever.

NicodemusV

I would start pulling investment from India ASAP. We are at the point where there are clear lines and repercussions for a states alignment.

IMHO_grim

Huge mistake. 
They have a chance to replace China and have companies move all their manufacturing if they were seen as a western ally. 
Their old non alliance game is no longer beneficial but old habits die hard.

SharLiJu

As expected, what did the US expect when they let Putin plunder Ukraine for two years without stopping him?

ChuchiTheBest

India is moving away from Russian military equipment to forge new defense partnerships with Western nations, like the US and France.

India's Shift from Russian to Western Defense Partnerships

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