Vladimir Putin’s high-profile summit with Narendra Modi in New Delhi underscores India’s determination to preserve strategic autonomy, deepen ties with Russia, and resist Washington’s mounting pressure to conform to its geopolitical agenda.

What Modi and Putin Agreed

During the two-day summit in New Delhi on December 4–5, 2025 — the first by Vladimir Putin to India since the start of the Russia-Ukraine military conflict — India and Russia mapped out an ambitious roadmap for the decade ahead. At the top of the agenda was energy. Putin pledged “uninterrupted shipments” of Russian fuel to power India’s surging energy needs, asserting that Russia remains a “reliable supplier” for India’s growth.  In response, Modi reaffirmed that “energy security has been a strong and important pillar of the India–Russia partnership.”

But the summit went far beyond hydrocarbons. The two sides also signed or committed to multiple memoranda of understanding (MoUs) spanning health, agriculture, trade, shipping, labour mobility, media, and cultural exchanges.  They formalized an “Economic Cooperation Programme until 2030,” a blueprint intended to transform the relationship from one skewed heavily toward oil and defence, to a diversified, balanced partnership. A central target emerged: to double bilateral trade to US$100 billion by 2030.  As part of that push, Russia signalled it would import more Indian goods. This is a major shift from the current imbalance,........

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