Opinion | India’s reliance on Russian weapons comes under strain even as its Russian oil imports surge

Seeing Russian weaponry fail in Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine is weighing on their export appeal, but the conflict is driving up interest in Russian oil

Russia was once India’s top arms supplier and a middling oil provider, but those roles appear to be reversing as the conflict continues

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Visitors walk past a model of India’s BrahMos supersonic cruise missile displayed at the Defence Expo 2022 in Gandhinagar on October 18. The appeal of Russian weaponry is fading in India at the same time as Russian oil is flowing to India at a record pace. Photo: AFP

Published: 3:30am, 16 Nov 2022

Though India has sought to strike a balance in the stand-off between the US-led West and Russia since the latter’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, recent developments are adding complexities to its task, for Russia’s roles as India’s primary arms contractor and middling oil supplier look set to switch.

Arriving in Moscow on November 8 for his fifth meeting with his Russian counterpart since the invasion began, India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar expressed satisfaction with the two countries engaging each other in an “increasingly multipolar and rebalanced world” and with their economic cooperation “moving towards long-term stability”.

“There have been strong and continuing contacts between our governments at various levels,” Jaishankar said, noting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin met this September at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit.

India has yet to condemn the Russian offensive, calling instead for the crisis to be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.

Amid their friendly ties, it’s worth noting that while the punitive economic sanctions imposed on Moscow by the US and the European Union have left India unfazed as it imports record volumes of crude oil from Russia, the abysmal failure of Russian weaponry in Ukraine is likely to compel India to reconsider its traditional dependence on Soviet or Russian armaments.

A Ukrainian defence ministry dossier has revealed that the Russian weapons found on the battlefield have been ineffective and failed to meet modern requirements. Its armoured vehicles and helicopters have wilted before small arms fire, and its missiles miss more than two-thirds of their targets.