NEW DELHI, India – Russia and India, two of the world’s largest militaries, have signed the most substantial defense pact ever, allowing them to station soldiers and aircraft on each other’s territory.
Signed last year and now in operation, the bilateral Exchange of Logistics Support (RELOS) agreement facilitates countries’ access to each other’s military bases, ports, and airfields in peacetime and wartime.
In a major change, India, the world’s most populous country, has for the first time allowed foreign troops to temporarily station soldiers in the country.
The deepening ties between Russia and India, particularly in the defense sector, come amid a series of global wars that have disrupted the global economy and affected millions of people in New Delhi and Moscow, under the shadow of US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable policy decisions.
So, what is included in the defense agreement? What benefits will it bring to Russia and India?
What does a RELOS contract include?
The RELOS agreement was negotiated over the past eight years and signed in Moscow last February. Russian President Vladimir Putin ratified the bill under federal law on December 15.
The deal has been in force since January 12, but its details were only made public by Russian officials this week.
The RELOS agreement is valid for five years, with a provision for extension by mutual consent. Importantly, the agreement will allow both countries to station 3,000 troops, five warships and 10 military aircraft on each other’s territory.
In a statement after ratification, the Kremlin said: “The purpose of the agreement is to define the procedures for the deployment of military formations, port calls by warships, and the use of airspace and airfield infrastructure by military aircraft of the parties.”
The logistics agreement also sets out a framework for a wide range of services, including refueling, repair and replenishment of warships and aircraft. In other words, the deal streamlines the maintenance of Russian military equipment, which already makes up the bulk of India’s inventory, analysts said.
The agreement currently governs the navy’s access to ports and the supply of food, water, and technological resources. For airlift platforms, the agreement includes air traffic control, navigational support and aircraft security, as well as fuel, lubricants and maintenance services.
RELOS also facilitates inter-military cross-training alongside humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) missions in each country’s areas of interest.
How will RELOS benefit Russia?
Since the Cold War era, the defense sector has been a central pillar of bilateral relations between Russia and India, and since the 1960s Russia has been a major arms supplier to India.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, India became one of the biggest buyers of discounted crude oil following Western sanctions. As a result, New Delhi faced the ire of US President Donald Trump and European leaders who accused India’s purchases of fueling Putin’s war machine.
The deal gives Russia breakthrough access to the Indian Ocean and, in turn, gives New Delhi access to ports along the northern sea route from Vladivostok to Murmansk. Analysts say these are important to protect against global supply disruptions.
Andrei Kortunov, academic director of the Russian Council for International Affairs, a Moscow think tank, told Al Jazeera that the RELOS agreement deepens the existing bilateral partnership.
“This will give both countries unrestricted access to the infrastructure of their partners and provide each other with a limited military presence on each other’s territory,” Kortunov said. “This will strengthen both countries’ power projection and military assistance capabilities.”
Currently, Russia has no military bases or other infrastructure in the Indian Ocean, Kortunov noted. “This agreement will help Moscow acquire such capabilities,” he added.
“For Moscow, RELOS is more of a sanctions-era movement agreement than a wartime alliance,” Amitabh Singh, an associate professor at the Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, told Al Jazeera.
Singh added that the deal brings Moscow and New Delhi closer together and expands Russia’s options amid global pressure over the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.
“The strategic value for Russia is to have this operational range where Russian ships and aircraft can remain deployed for long periods of time in the Indian Ocean region and even into nearby sea lanes,” Singh said. “From Moscow, the Indian Ocean, which has recently become a setting, is a geographically distant world.”
“This agreement also helps to demonstrate that Russia still has a meaningful partnership in Asia,” he added.
How will RELOS benefit India?
Ajay Malhotra, a former Indian ambassador to Russia, told Al Jazeera that the bilateral defense cooperation agreement “marks a shift from an equipment-based defense supply relationship to one that also allows for operational logistics cooperation.”
“It adds a layer of interoperability that India did not previously have with Russia and brings the bilateral relationship closer together,” Malhotra said, adding that the deal would give New Delhi “access to Russian facilities in the Arctic and Far East, where Russia is a key enabler.”
The strategic signal from the agreement is “one of continuity and depth regarding a trusted legacy partnership,” the former ambassador added.
He said RELOS “spreads risk by allowing India’s logistics access outside Western-controlled networks, and institutionalizes such access in a modest but concrete way.”
While hosting Russia in the Indian Ocean, India will also gain access to the Northern Sea Route to counter China, which already has access, argues Singh of Jawaharlal Nehru University.
“This creates and strengthens India’s access from the Pacific to the Arctic. This is a blow to India as a key player with stakes in the Indo-Pacific,” said Praveen Dhonti, senior India analyst at the International Crisis Group, a Washington-based think tank.
But didn’t India agree to diversify away from Russia?
India has been dependent on Russia for military supplies for some time, and a large portion of India’s arsenal is Russian-made.
Since the Cold War era, India has been one of the leaders of the so-called “non-cooperation movement” under which developing countries have refused to take decisive sides in hostilities between Russia and the West. In recent years, India has come to call this cornerstone of its foreign policy its “multi-alliance” strategy.
But under increasing pressure from the United States and Europe, particularly after US President Donald Trump’s decision last year to impose a 25% trade tariff on India on purchases of Russian oil, India is increasing its purchases from the West as it seeks to diversify its defense and energy supplies. All the while, it has continued to perform a delicate balancing act to maintain its relationship with Russia.
Through the RELOS agreement, New Delhi offset its efforts to diversify away from Russia, Singh said.
“India has taken the position that it is not going to disengage with us by not buying more military equipment,” he added, “but we are actively engaged in strategic issues.”
“This is one of the trade-offs that India was trying to make with Russia in this deal,” he told Al Jazeera. “RELOS provides Russia with a low-cost logistics bridge to the Indian Ocean, extending naval endurance and increasing strategic influence.”
Does the shadow of the United States still remain?
India also has military agreements with the US, including the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA).
The LEMOA, signed in 2016, allows mutual access to military logistics and refueling facilities, while another agreement facilitates the sharing of encrypted, high-tech communication systems between the two militaries.
“The RELOS agreement puts Russia in a similar position with the United States regarding LEMOA,” Singh said. However, there is one major difference between these agreements. New Delhi allows Russia to station troops, aircraft and warships, but this is not the case with other agreements.
Since President Trump returned to the White House last January, relations with New Delhi have deteriorated on multiple fronts, from India’s foreign policy to tariff sanctions.
Andrei Kortunov of the Russian Council for International Affairs in Moscow told Al Jazeera that the RELOS agreement was not inherently directed at the United States. “But this is a signal to Washington that the US cannot take India for granted,” he added.
Ajay Malhotra, former Indian ambassador to Russia, said, “RELOS will strengthen India’s strategic autonomy given the signs of transactionalism in US foreign and economic policy.”
The former Indian diplomat further said that from New Delhi’s perspective, Russia’s partnership with the US is not mutually exclusive and that “our long-standing and deep-rooted friendship with Russia and our close ties with the US are not, and never have been, a zero-sum game.”
The RELOS agreement is also “about future-proofing India’s strategic space by providing some flexibility in a scenario where global alignment continues to be disrupted and becomes more unpredictable,” Malhotra said.
