Russia is now among New Delhi's top five trading partners as energy imports break records

Russia is now one of India's top five trading partners. The figures from India's Department of Commerce show that turnover between the two nations has tripled in the ten months of the fiscal year starting in April 2022 and concluding this month. Moscow is now ranked fifth, behind the United States, China, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.

The data from the Commerce Ministry points out that India's imports from Russia increased by roughly five times to USD 37.31 billion between April and January of the current fiscal year as a result of an increase in the country's inbound shipments of crude oil. Previously, Russia ranked as India's 18th-largest trading partner in 2021–22, contributing $9.86 billion in imports. The amount of trade between the two nations increased from $13.1 billion in the previous fiscal year to over $39.7 billion in January 2023, with Russian exports to New Delhi accounting for the majority of this increase, or $37.3 billion.

Trade reach a whopping $40 billion between New Delhi and Moscow 

A significant portion of the increase in commerce was due to Russian energy exports. Shortly after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine which was accompanied by Western sanctions, India, the third-largest crude importer in the world, started to increase its imports of Russian oil. Due to the restrictions, Russia's traditional oil customers in the West stopped buying its oil, forcing Moscow to look for new markets by offering heavy discounts on its energy.

India's fourth-largest import source over the first ten months of the current fiscal was Russia. For the fourth month in a row, India's demand for Russian crude oil exceeded that of typical middle eastern suppliers as refiners rushed to buy up ample cargoes that were offered at a discount to other grades. India, the third-largest crude importer in the world after China and the United States, has been snatching up Russian oil that was on sale after some in the West avoided it as retaliation for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Russia accounts for 28 per cent of New Delhi's total energy imports

According to energy cargo tracker Vortexa, Russia's share in India's imports increased to 1.27 million barrels per day in January, taking up 28% of the market from less than 1% at the commencement of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Even when the EU embargo and the G7 price ceiling on Russian oil went into effect late last year, New Delhi, which has consistently emphasised that energy security is its top priority, refused to give in to Western pressure and kept stockpiling Russian supplies. It has now climbed into the top five for the first time since India started monitoring trade figures in the late 1990s. The nation's best performance was in the fiscal year 1997-1998 when it came in at number 16, and it ranked 25th in 2021-2022.