India turns to ‘trusted friend’ Russia for oil, LNG supply as Iran war energises ties

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin speaks with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Hyderabad House in New Delhi in December.

Photo: AFP As Russia comes to India’s aid amid the global energy crisis, a familiar mantra has resurfaced among officials and political analysts – that Moscow is New Delhi’s “all weather-friend”.

Such a stance is anchored by deep strategic interests, with both countries viewing each other as vital to their balancing between China and an increasingly erratic United States, according to observers.

On Friday, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said Moscow was well-positioned to ramp up energy supplies to India amid the energy supply chaos triggered by the Iran war.

Manturov, who was speaking at the end of a two-day visit to India, held meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Foreign Minister S.

Jaishankar and other Indian ministers in Delhi to discuss trade, energy and industrial cooperation.

Delhi is reportedly in talks with Moscow to restart direct liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from Russia for the first time since the 2022 Ukraine war, while Indian refiners have renewed big purchases of Russian crude, securing 60 million barrels for April.

Manturov said Russian companies were capable of boosting their oil and LNG supplies to India.

Bilateral ties have been under duress since August, when US President Donald Trump imposed a penalty tariff on Delhi for buying crude oil from Moscow, in a move aimed at weaning India away from the Russian energy sector.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation Alexei Likhachev (left) and Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov (second from left) visit an exhibition in Moscow in 2024.

Photo: EPA-EFE/Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool On April 2, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesman for Delhi’s external affairs ministry, hailed the “deep-rooted, time-tested relationship” between the two countries while talking about the visit by Manturov and other Russian officials, stressing their cooperation across trade, defence and strategic sectors.

Speaking on local TV stations in recent days, several Indian analysts have hailed Russia as India’s “trusted friend”.

Their comments echo those of Modi, who called Moscow an “all-weather friend” during his visit to Russia in July 2024 and in December last year, when Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Delhi to attend the two countries’ annual bilater

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