India and Russia are building something big in space

From orbital stations to navigation systems, Moscow and New Delhi are deepening strategic, scientific, and military-technical ties Space exploration and satellite navigation are fragile, failure-prone and enormously expensive.

Yet they offer something few other fields can match: technological superiority and strategic prestige.

The main players in space remain Russia, the United States, and China, followed by India, the European Union, and Japan.

Newer entrants include the United Arab Emirates, Iran, and a range of states in South America and West Asia.

Because the sector is so costly and high-risk, cooperation is highly valued – it brings redundancy, speeds up technological progress, and cuts the price of getting there.

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov earlier this week, in the runup to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to New Delhi, noted that Russia and India are considering the possibility of cross-flights involving mixed crews to their future national orbital stations.

He said that this cooperation could eventually extend to joint scientific experiments and research.

In May this year, Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval visited the Roscosmos Joint Industry Information Center, while in August, Indian Foreign Minister S.

Jaishankar traveled to Moscow to co-chair the 27th session of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC).

Increased collaboration between Moscow and New Delhi within the space sector is occurring within the backdrop of three larger yet interlinked trends: first, the United States’ active dismantling of the remaining international order; second, the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Iran; and third, the advancement in drones and defense technologies.

The current US administration has upended the established decades-long US foreign policy by targeting longstanding allies with tariffs and sanctions in the attainment of its goals.

India has become a target more than once of American tariffs and economic pressure.

Attempts to reach a deal with the Trump administration have failed to produce long-term tangible gains.

Read more India gets 24/7 monitoring capability with new satellite This, however, has had a deep impact on the Indian populace.