India's stance on Ukraine war a strategic interest: Singapore-based think tank

SINGAPORE: India's position on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine reflects a calculation of its strategic interests, a Singapore-based think-tank said on Friday, and has pointed out that excessive reliance on Russian arms would curtail New Delhi's strategic autonomy with respect to China. The Ukraine war, which began with Russia's military invasion of the eastern European nation on February 25 last year, has had a far-reaching impact on the global energy system.

Sensing the opportunity, India has been snapping up crude from Moscow at discounted rates, refining and re-selling it.

"India and Russia share some geopolitical assumptions, including support for a future multi-polar global order featuring a less dominant US, which is a leading authority on global security, political risk and military conflict," said Singapore-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), in a dossier titled "Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment.



The report stated that an excessive reliance on Russian arms curtails India's strategic autonomy with respect to China, something many policymakers in New Delhi concede.

Russia has been steadily providing arms to India.

"A future confrontation with China would be especially challenging for India without the supplies of Russian arms," it said.

"Viewed from New Delhi, any Russian defeat in Ukraine would likely push Moscow and Beijing closer," it added.

India has not yet condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it has been maintaining that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.

Since the Ukraine war unravelled, the US and other Western nations have unleashed a series of crippling economic sanctions on Russia.

The Ukraine war has disrupted supply and demand patterns and fractured long-standing trade relationships and pushed up energy prices for many consumers and businesses around the world, hurting households, industries and economies of several nations.

Prior to Russia's military invasion of Ukraine last year, India, the world's third-largest crude importer after China and the US, mainly imported crude from the Middle East.

India snapped 1.96 million barrels of Russian crude last month, 15 per cent more than last month, according to data from Vortexa Ltd.