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Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
Indian Consul General in Vladivostok Siddarth Gowrav visited the soon-to-be-unveiled Sukhodol coal terminal in Vladivostok as part of efforts to expand maritime cooperation with the Indian ports of Paradip and Jaigarh, which handled the largest quantities of Russian coal in the first quarter of 2024. This announcement comes as the US continues to escalate its smearing of India, this time by alleging that minorities are under threat.
“The overall functioning, technological capacities and capabilities of the port were presented along with its latest developments and plans for further expansion, opportunities for India – Russia maritime cooperation were also discussed,” Gowrav said on social media.
With an initial capacity of 12 million tonnes per annum, Sukhodol port will enable “small and medium-sized coal companies” to have year-round navigation and a dedicated train station, thus ensuring that Russia can continue delivering coal even in the harshest winter conditions. This is critical for energy-hungry India, which imported around 6.1 million tonnes of Russian coal at 16 ports between January and March 2024, thus making Russia the fourth-biggest supplier of coal to the South Asian country.
Coal exports to India from Russia have only risen over the last half decade and are projected to continue increasing despite the constant barrage of pressure New Delhi experiences from the West for not severing ties with Moscow and imposing US-led sanctions. Signalling the increasing relations is the fact that India’s eastern seaports are now taking precedence over western seaports, where Russian cargo must traverse European and, therefore, hostile waters.
Vladivostok, Russia’s most important city and port in the Far East, as well as Nakhodka and Sakhalin, mostly exports coal to China and, previously, South Korea, which slowed down after Russia launched its military operation against Ukraine. Although India is a viable replacement for South Korea, facilities had to be upgraded to boost coal imports to India’s eastern ports, which have a much lower transportation time to Vladivostok than the country’s western ports connecting with Russia’s western ports.
Tensions in the Red Sea have caused costs from Russia’s western ports to rise as ships now need to take longer routes around Africa. This makes Vladivostok more critical, even if Russian coal imports will continue to be unloaded at ports on its western and eastern coasts in the foreseeable future.
Due to New Delhi’s unapologetic boosting of relations with Moscow, which are founded on longstanding ties from the Cold War era, the West continues to target India, even if there are convergences of mutual interest, such as opposition to China.
In the most recent example, the US Congressional Research Service (CRS) falsely claimed in a report that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) enacted on March 11 could potentially breach India’s Constitution and expressed concern that the planned National Register of Citizens (NRC) could target the rights of India’s 210 million or so Muslim population.
It is recalled that US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said following the enactment of the CAA that the White House was closely monitoring the amendment and that “religious freedom and equal treatment under the law for all communities are fundamental democratic principles,” even though no minority rights would be violated. At the time, New Delhi responded by demanding that Washington not interfere in India’s internal matters.
Despite the demand, it is unlikely that the US will refrain from interfering in India’s internal affairs and, in fact, will continue to instigate issues, such as by tolerating separatist groups on its territory, like the Khalistanis, Sikh zealots who seek an independent country in northwest India. As India is an emerging power that in the coming decades can also challenge US global hegemony, Washington wants to control India and believes this can be achieved through instability, such as supporting independence movements, and by targeting India’s economic growth, such as discouraging the fruitful trade relations with Russia by issuing sanction threats.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “India First” policy means that New Delhi is intolerant of any interference from the US, even if, as mentioned, there are convergences in their opposition to China’s rise. Although the US successfully interfered in Pakistan’s internal affairs, Washington’s attempts to influence India’s and Bangladesh’s recent elections have failed, showing that American influence in the region overall is waning.
India’s dependence on the US continues to decrease, especially as relations with Russia continue to flourish, which does not interfere in the affairs of South Asia. Although it would be in Washington’s interest to maintain good relations with New Delhi vis-à-vis China, India’s neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict frustrates policymakers and explains why there is a continued smear campaign against the country.
india has abandoned russian military production and nowadays buy military products mostly from west. very cheap oil from russia is ok. india take advantage of russia’s desperation. less than $60 of ural blend and russia is netearning less that $30.
nazis keep lying.
you not even look up or cant.
russian weapon xport is reduced and is well descriced in 1000 exemples all over it world. they comment why.
i dont dont why he should nazis. even so its not the same as lying.
they always do nowadays, it’s all they have left
indeed. it’s like that crap from stupid “bloomberg” saying that 50 bln (if count in dollars) stucked in indian banks, because indian government didn’t accepted transfers in rupias. indian gov-t disapproved this lies and added that the trade is not in rupias, but in dinars of uae. “bloomberg” lies not less about china, sometimes it’s very hilarious lies, because journalwhores are completely insane in their hatred. that’s why “bloomberg” was banned by opec, they have lied a lot about opec too.
on the surface, multilateral cooperation between india and russia seems robust. the two also continue to coordinate positions at the u.n. and the shanghai cooperation organization (sco). however, a closer analysis suggests that effective cooperation in multipolar spaces is limited. this has less to do with india’s emerging partnership with the united states and more with india’s rising rivalry with china.
i agree. both want to grow and espand fatter and also better.
india has almost boycutted denmark for political reasons prototing they are the biiig subcontent by politial and social reason they many rapes included.
but they has changed 180 grades. they will have windpower and that tech and modern infrastrukture from effective distributing of elecisity.
im sure they need loans from the outside and not in rubels.
“tensions in the red sea have caused costs from russia’s western ports to rise as ships now need to take longer routes around africa.” but “ansar allah” doesn’t attack ships of friendly countries like china or russia. so many ships are coming through bab-el-mandeb straight.
anyway a coal for india is mostly from mines in west siberia (syradasay deposit on taimyr with high quality coal) and far east of russia (elga deposit in yakutia). vladivostok is between india and coal mines, and therefore has been chosen as a transit point.
though india is 3rd world, if seen in favour for those poor people, they never would go against russia and russian weapons are not so bad, after all….:-)
3rd world is just non-aligned, neutrality movement — countries who wished to not ally with socialist or anti-socialist block. yugoslavia was also 3rd world country as well as tens of other states. and russian-made weapons are simply the best and cost 3 times less than any western analogue. some have no analogues at all as hyper-sonic missiles or advanced aad units.
what the heck is friendly ships. they are not owned by states and are owned and driven by stockholders all over. i have some not connected to the premiere minister.
the are they busses and go and come for anyone which ask. they are the unfrinded ones and not and kill anyones the locals included.