MULTIPOLARITY
Why Is India Joining Forces With Russia In The Arctic?
- India and Russia deepened their strategic partnership with a new logistics pact granting mutual access to military bases.
- The deal embeds India in Russia’s Arctic ambitions, linking New Delhi to a region central to Russia’s nuclear forces and vast untapped oil, gas, and mineral reserves.
- Russia now supplies over one-third of India’s crude, and Putin pledged uninterrupted fuel flows, complicating U.S. efforts to shift India away from Russian oil.
The visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi just over a week ago seems to have been overlooked by many geopolitical observers, which is surprising. It represents one of the most consequential recalibrations of India–Russia ties in years -- combining defence access, energy guarantees, and diplomatic symbolism -- at a moment when global alignments are shifting faster than ever. At the heart of the visit was the ratification of the ‘Reciprocal Exchange of Logistics Support’ (RELOS) pact, a deal that quietly extends India’s and Russia’s military cooperation into Russia’s Arctic ports and the Northern Sea Route (NSR).
This remote region’s Kola Peninsula hosts roughly half of Russia’s fleet of nuclear?powered, nuclear?armed ballistic missile submarines, including 12 strategic nuclear submarines carrying up to 192 nuclear?capable ballistic missiles, plus dozens of cruise?missile and special?purpose nuclear submarines. This means the Arctic operates effectively as Moscow’s second?strike capability if its main domestic nuclear forces were destroyed. The region also remains a key site for testing advanced systems, including hypersonic missiles, nuclear?powered torpedoes, and cruise missiles, and Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom also maintains nuclear power plants in the Arctic, further entrenching its nuclear presence. Beyond its nuclear arsenal, the Russian Arctic is also home to some of the world’s largest untapped reserves of oil, gas, and critical minerals. Estimates suggest the region holds over 35,700 billion cubic metres of natural gas and over 2,300 million metric tons of oil and condensate, the majority of which are located in the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas, lying on the south side of the Kara Sea. The region also holds vast deposits of nickel, cobalt, and rare earths essential for modern industry. For the Kremlin, exploiting this wealth is not only an economic imperative but a strategic one: revenues from Arctic energy projects provide the financial backbone for sustaining military modernisation and weathering Western sanctions.
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Against this backdrop, the RELOS agreement allows the armed forces of both countries to use each other’s bases, ports, and airfields for refuelling, repairs, resupply, and maintenance. The pact also covers joint exercises, training missions, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief. However, its specific strategic implications are far-reaching on both sides. For India, by allowing its warships to refuel and resupply at Russian ports such as Murmansk and Vladivostok, the agreement gives New Delhi a tangible foothold in the NSR, a corridor that can shorten Europe–Asia shipping distances by nearly 40% and significantly enhance both trade and naval mobility. Operationally, access to Russian facilities enables Indian forces to sustain deployments far from home without relying exclusively on Western partners. Indeed, even before this latest pact, Indian troops took part in the 12-16 September Russian-led ‘Zapad’ military manoeuvres, along with Belarus, according to Russian state news agency TASS. These drills also included rehearsals for the use of tactical nuclear weapons for the first time. And finally, on a symbolic level, RELOS embeds India within Russia’s Arctic project, signalling its arrival as a player in polar geopolitics, projecting influence into a region that has long been central to Moscow’s ambitions.
On the other side of the equation, reciprocal access to Indian bases and facilities gives Moscow a reliable presence in the Indian Ocean, in which it has long sought to expand its naval footprint but has lacked reliable partners. The ability to refuel, resupply, and repair in Indian ports also strengthens Russia’s capacity to project power into the Indo?Pacific and to participate more actively in joint military exercises. Politically, India’s involvement with Russia in the Arctic helps to legitimise Moscow’s ambitions in the region, and more broadly signals that the Kremlin is not isolated, despite rising Western sanctions. Closer cooperation with India additionally opens pathways for marketing Arctic hydrocarbons and mineral resources to Asian buyers, reinforcing the NSR as a future trade corridor for Moscow. And militarily, the pact deepens offensive and defensive interoperability between the two forces, embedding Russia within India’s wider logistics network and ensuring that its vessels can operate with greater flexibility. In strategic terms as well, anchoring ties with India helps Russia offset Western attempts to contain its influence, while securing a major Asian partner willing to institutionalise defence cooperation at a time when Moscow’s options elsewhere are narrowing. In the shorter term, perhaps the most immediate benefit to Putin is the implicit endorsement from his Indian counterpart that the cornerstone energy relationship between the two countries is far from over, despite increased pressure from the West.
Since the start of the Ukraine war, New Delhi has emerged as one of the largest buyers of Russian crude, second only to China. In 2024, Russia supplied nearly 36% of India’s total crude imports -- around 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) -- at steeply discounted prices compared to global benchmarks. Even after the U.S. imposed tariffs of up to 50% on Indian goods to pressure New Delhi into reducing purchases, India has maintained its reliance on Russian energy, arguing that affordable supplies are essential for its fast?growing economy. Moreover, during his very recent December visit, Putin pledged “uninterrupted shipments of fuel” and described Russia as a reliable supplier of oil, gas, and coal. Having earlier rolled out more sanctions to deter India from continuing to use Russian oil and gas, Washington recently augmented these with its oil and gas supply offer for India. These seek to push several key elements of the ‘India-U.S. Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership’ plan that was sketched out in February during meetings between President Trump and Prime Minister Modi. These plans – like Russia’s involving India – also include military elements, formalised in a new initiative -- the ‘U.S.-India COMPACT (Catalyzing Opportunities for Military Partnership, Accelerated Commerce & Technology) for the 21st Century’. This sees Washington expanding its defence sales and co-production with India to strengthen interoperability and defence industrial cooperation. On broader commerce as well, the two sides set a new goal for bilateral trade -- to more than double the current figure, to US$500 billion by 2030. Delivering on these broad agreements, with their many moving parts, is the U.S.’s next challenge in keeping India on side, but its longstanding military, political, economic and energy relationship with Russia may prove very difficult to break.
By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com
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