India ramped up crude oil purchases from Russia despite warnings from Washington not to do so. India’s relations with the U.S. seemed to have improved during a brief struggle with this China last summer. Besides oil, India also signed defence and industrial deals with Russia at the end of 2021. Up until recently, Washington thought India could finally and definitively be brought on to its side in the evolving power struggle between the U.S. and its allies on the one hand, and China and its allies (including Russia) on the other. However, a series of quick-fire developments have derailed this optimism, leaving a key part of the U.S. broader Middle Eastern and Asia Pacific military, economic, and hydrocarbons strategy in tatters. The latest example of India not playing the vital role that had been envisioned for it by the U.S. are the plethora of oil deals being done by […]