With the world’s largest population and aspirations to great power status, India may be the most important of the world’s emerging powers. Its ties to Washington have never looked so strong. The White House has reconciled itself to India’s friendly relationship with Russia, likely because India has aligned itself more and more closely with the United States when it comes to China.
Throughout the Cold War, India was a principled leader of the nonaligned movement. A cornerstone of Indian foreign policy is that great powers should never define India’s interests or policies. India has persisted with this vision through its refusal to sacrifice its ties with Russia over the war in Ukraine. Instead, it has taken advantage of Western sanctions on Russia by purchasing cheap oil in bulk. India’s dependence on Russian arms and nostalgia for the Soviet Union’s support to India also discouraged New Delhi from alienating Moscow.
India’s interest in preserving ties with Russia does not mean it is indifferent to the violence in Ukraine. At the G7 Summit in May 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky that India would do ‘everything it can’ to help bring peace to Ukraine. India may be the most important of the emerging powers sympathetic to Russia, if only because of its size and economic heft. India seeks to preserve Russia’s position as a great power, in part because it would help ensure a global multipolar order, which India views as essential for the growth of its own influence.
Despite its discomfort, Washington has come to terms with India’s stance on Russia, and focused instead on India’s relationship with China, where Washington and New Delhi are naturally more aligned. India cooperates increasingly with the United States on defense and considers its membership in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) with Australia, Japan, and the United States to be pivotal in its regional strategy of balancing China.
India is also increasingly aligned with the United States on technology development. The Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), launched in May 2022, provides a framework for Washington and New Delhi to cooperate on the development of technological systems, including semiconductors, telecommunications technology, and artificial intelligence. India has also become a closer trade partner to the West than to China.
U.S.-India cooperation has its limits, however. India is sometimes seen as ‘the Quad’s weakest link’ because of its hesitance to fully commit to collective security cooperation. As the only Quad member that shares a border with China, India is wary of focusing the group too heavily on security and tends to prefer the Quad’s efforts on humanitarian aid, global health, new technological development, and maritime awareness.
Indian leaders see defense cooperation with the United States as a means of acquiring better technology and a strong defense industrial base. These it wants so it can defend itself, not so that it can assist Washington against China. If China invaded Taiwan, India almost certainly would not join the United States in defending Taiwan with military force. Moreover, India’s security concerns about China have not precluded it from cooperating with China through BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). India will continue to identify as the ‘voice of the Global South’ and advocate for a more inclusive international system in which developing countries have more representation in shaping the international order.
