Moscow: India and Russia could leverage their decades-long bonds of goodwill, trust and friendship to guide global transition in areas of shared interest in the current turbulent international system, a report said on Wednesday.
It stressed that following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India in December 2025 and amid a global order in a free-fall, both nations – as vectors of stability – may have little choice but to operationalise the ‘Russia-India plus’ formulation, initially in South and Central Asia, with potential expansion to Global South countries, including Africa.
“With the multipolar global system, based on new international rules yet to emerge, two strong poles of the international system – India and Russia – may need to work together with complete strategic clarity, purpose and trust to stabilise South and Central Asia. In fact, the two can adopt the 2+1 formula, or a Russia-India+ template with a third country joining the two constants – India and Russia – at a tactical level in specific geographies,” strategic affairs analyst Atul Aneja wrote for Geo Politika.
According to the report, India and Russia share closely-aligned strategic interests in Afghanistan, which serves as a gateway to South Asia, West Asia, Central Asia and China.
“Consequently, India and Russia’s special ties with Afghanistan imply the possibility of greater regional convergence, and, if necessary, the denial of strategic influence of a hostile non-regional power, especially after the onset of the Trump Presidency in the United States. Consequently all the regional heavyweights have taken adverse notice of US President Donald Trump’s threat of taking over Bagram airbase, 64 kilometres from Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital. Trump, last year, had demanded that Afghanistan return control of the Bagram Air Base to the United States, warning of ‘bad things’ if it does not comply,” it detailed.
According to the report, the geopolitical interests of Russia and India converge strongly not only in Afghanistan but also across Central Asian nations, highlighting the urgency of developing joint Indo-Russian initiatives in this geopolitically sensitive region.
It further noted, in Bangladesh, “where a regime change marshalled by the US Deep State has conspired to install an establishment that is hostile to India, but increasingly friendly to Pakistan and China, Moscow may once again need to bond with New Delhi to turn the tide in Dhaka, adding that in Bangladesh, “India, and Russia’s interests do not converge with any third country”.
(IANS)
