India’s Relations with Major Developed Powers

India-USA ties have grown closer since the Cold War

• During the Cold War, India and the USA stood far apart.
• Since then, the two have grown steadily closer.
• The warmth shows up in trade, technology and defence.
• Read the full story in India-USA Relations and Trade.

Russia: a long legacy, strongest in defence

• India’s link with Russia goes back to the Soviet era.
• It is strongest in defence supplies.
• Many of India’s weapons and platforms have Russian roots.
• The deeper story is in India-Russia Relations.

Japan, Germany, France and the UK

• Japan: a “Special Strategic and Global Partnership”. Japanese money helps build big projects like the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train. See India-Japan Relations.
• Germany: one of India’s largest European trading partners. Work centres on engineering, renewable energy and skilled-worker migration.
• France: a strategic partner since 1998. It supplies India’s Rafale fighter jets. It also works with India on space and nuclear energy.
• The UK: a tie born in colonial history. Today it rests on a large Indian diaspora and trade talks that began after Brexit.
• For Germany, France and the wider bloc, see India-EU Relations.

A recession in a big economy can reach India

• A deep recession in a major developed economy can hurt India.
• It travels through three doors: trade, investment flows and remittances.
• The shock can start entirely outside India and still touch Indian households and businesses.
• That shows how closely India’s economy is now tied to the world’s.
• Think of exporters who lose orders when Western shoppers spend less.
• Think of investors who pull money out of Indian markets in a crisis.
• Think of families who receive less money from relatives working abroad.
• Each door opens onto ordinary households, not just on big firms.

Different seats at the table

• Developed and developing countries often take different positions on trade, the environment and human rights.
• These issues hit their economies in different ways.

The climate argument

• India says rich nations carry more historical responsibility for climate change.
• They industrialised first and have emitted for far longer.
• So India resists emission targets identical to those of countries that industrialised over a century earlier.
• This idea has a name: CBDR. See how it plays out in The Paris Agreement (2015).

Cooperation and competition together

• India’s ties with big powers now mix cooperation in some areas with disagreement in others.
• This is more accurate than calling any tie fully friendly or fully hostile.
• The security link between India’s USA and Japan ties is covered in QUAD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue).

Why India deepens US ties without dropping Russia

• India tries to keep working ties with several major powers.
• It avoids tying itself firmly to one.
• So warmer ties with the USA do not mean leaving an older partner, Russia.

The same rule, unequal effects

• A rule that looks equal on paper can hit countries unequally.
• The effect depends on each country’s stage of development.
• Climate and trade rules are the classic cases.

France sells more jets

• In April 2025, India signed a deal for 26 Rafale Marine jets for its Navy.
• It deepens the defence tie with France that began as a strategic partnership in 1998.
• It shows India buying from more than one partner, not just one.