Global & US Headlines
Putin’s 4-5 Dec 2025 State Visit to India Re-anchors a Sanction-Tested Partnership
For the first time since the Ukraine war began, Vladimir Putin spent two days (4-5 Dec 2025) in New Delhi, where Narendra Modi publicly reaffirmed defence, energy and trade ties with Russia despite fresh U.S. 50 % tariffs and sanctions threats.
Focusing Facts
- Both leaders signed a roadmap to lift bilateral trade from roughly $68 billion today to $100 billion by 2030.
- Putin’s trip was accorded full ceremonial honours—Rajghat wreath, Rashtrapati Bhavan guard, joint press conference—marking his first in-person India visit since Dec 2021.
- India still acquires about two-thirds of its major military platforms from Russia, including ongoing S-400 deliveries slated to finish by 2027.
Context
Great-power courtship in Delhi has echoes of Jawaharlal Nehru hosting Nikita Khrushchev in 1955, when India likewise balanced Cold-War blocs by welcoming a sanctioned Soviet Union while courting the West. Today’s scene reprises that non-aligned calculus but in a multipolar economy where supply chains, not ideology, set red lines. The visit crystallises two long arcs: (1) India’s century-long pursuit of strategic autonomy—visible from the 1947-62 non-alignment era through its 1998 nuclear tests defying both Moscow and Washington; and (2) Russia’s post-2014 eastward realignment as sanctions lock it out of Western capital. Whether this matters in 2125 depends on which structural force prevails: India’s gravitation toward higher-tech, rules-based markets or Russia’s need for reliable buyers outside the dollar system. If India ultimately becomes a top-three economy, this moment may be remembered less for any deal signed and more as a signal that mid-sized powers can still maneuver between super-power rivalries—a lesson every century seems to relearn.
Perspectives
Indian establishment-leaning outlets
e.g., Economic Times, Firstpost, newKerala, Mangalorean — Portray the Putin-Modi summit as a bold assertion of India’s strategic autonomy, proving New Delhi won’t let Western pressure dilute a ‘first-tier’ partnership with Moscow and highlighting deepening defence, energy and multipolar-order cooperation. Accentuates symbolism and shared interests while skimming over sanction risks, trade imbalances or Russia’s war-drained capacity—reflecting a pro-government narrative that rewards projecting diplomatic strength.
Western and liberal commentary critical of the visit
e.g., ThePrint, The Spectator Australia — Argues the summit exposed the relative weakness and transactional limits of both Russia and India, calling the pageantry shallow and warning that Moscow can’t offset China or offer cutting-edge tech while Delhi still tip-toes around U.S. tariffs. Frames events through a sanctions-era, Russo-skeptic lens that may overstate Russia’s decline and underplay India’s room for manoeuvre, aligning with Western strategic preferences to curb Moscow’s outreach.
Pragmatic Indian mainstream commentators
e.g., The Times of India, The Statesman — Acknowledge the summit reaffirmed durable ties yet stress the ‘tightrope’ India walks: no blockbuster energy or arms deals, mounting U.S. tariff pressure, and the need to diversify beyond oil and legacy weapons into broader trade corridors. Balances but can drift toward both-sidesism, muting sharper critiques of Russia or Washington to preserve an image of even-handed analysis for a wide domestic readership.