On March 11, 2025, accepting credentials from the newly arrived Indian Ambassador Ashok Kumar, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko reiterated Minsk's aspiration to reach a strategic level of bilateral relations with New Delhi, emphasizing their long-standing friendly nature.
In this context, the experience of other small and medium-sized post-Soviet states far beyond India's immediate neighborhood, such as Armenia, may be of interest.
The rapid rise of Armenian-Indian relations in recent years may symbolize a new trend in New Delhi's foreign policy, diversifying it beyond South Asia. India seeks to strengthen its geostrategic positions in the South Caucasus through Armenia by entering the regional power balance based on the coincidence or complementarity of interests and advantages of each other.
An analysis of the results of the recent March visit of Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan to New Delhi allows us to identify the basic parameters of a new quality of bilateral relations.
This cooperation is based on the military-technical sphere. In a short time, India has become Armenia's key supplier of military equipment and weapons of its own manufacture, including Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launchers. In Yerevan, these steps are justified by the need to modernize its army with an emphasis on non-targeting against a third party.
By the way, the strategic partnership between India and Poland, which was established during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Warsaw in August last year, also includes military and military-technical cooperation. Polish experts characterized the previous decade as a “lost decade" for bilateral relations. Сhanges are obvious!
Yerevan fully and unconditionally supports India on the issue of the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir, and also condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. In addition, Armenia supports the reform of the UN Security Council, and also shares India's ambitions to become a permanent member of this body.
Armenia expects to attract more Indian students. To this end, a large-scale project is being launched – the creation of an academic campus with the unification of several diverse universities. Currently, about 3,000 Indian students, mostly medical, are studying in the country. Intentions are being declared to make more active use of the Iranian port of Chabahar leased by India to diversify logistics routes operating in the region, with an emphasis on its own Crossroads of the World project and its synergy with projects within the framework of the North-South ITC.
In this context, the Armenia-India-Iran trilateral cooperation format is of particular importance.
Considerable attention is planned to be paid to delegation exchanges at the private business level in order to resume previous or help establish new business contacts. In this regard, it is planned to strengthen the relationship between business-government (B2G) and business-to-business (B2B) formats.
The parties see information technology, healthcare technology, pharmaceuticals, education, science, and artificial intelligence as important areas of cooperation, where both countries have expertise and mutual interest. In the field of digital transformation, in 2023, Armenia and India signed a memorandum of understanding on solutions sharing for large-scale government projects.
Cooperation in the field of green energy opens up new prospects, combining the potential of Armenia with the experience of India. In 2024, Armenia joined the International Solar Alliance, a joint initiative of India and France, which creates additional partnership opportunities.
It is expected that the establishment of direct flights between Yerevan and New Delhi will boost the tourism industry, which, in addition to mutual economic benefits, will promote greater mobility and interpersonal contacts, strengthening mutual understanding and awareness at all levels.
Serious potential is seen in the development of labor migration from India to Armenia in order to increase the number of the Indian diaspora in the country, which is considered in New Delhi as an instrument of “soft” power. At the same time, it is emphasized that this area should be strictly regulated in the context of the needs of the Armenian economy and the situation on the domestic labor market.
The parties believe that expert communities can and should contribute to efforts to strengthen bilateral relations by providing in-depth analysis and recommendations.
Thus, given the increasing attention to the South Caucasus and Eastern Europe, India's experience of rapprochement with small and medium-sized states outside its immediate neighborhood in our region can theoretically be extrapolated to the Belarusian-Indian context in line with the guideline set by the Head of State.
However, it would seem to be a mistake to perceive India as a simple source of investment, technology, and a market. This country is today is something more, radically going beyond the focus of the stereotypical eurocentric perspective, which requires unconventional approaches and tools to build bilateral ties.
To reach a strategic level in relations, it is necessary not only to take, but also to give, since New Delhi's main priority is its own internal development and security. Some experts believe that Narendra Modi's unspoken motto is the words of former President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1962-1967): “A free India will be judged by the way in which it will serve the interests of the common man in the matters of food, clothing, shelter, and social activities.”
Although overseas partnerships matter, it is the immediate needs, not ideology, that shape India's external commitments. Such a pragmatic approach materializes in practice in close ties with the West (where the new elite grew up and studied) and simultaneous strategic partnership with the Russian Federation in the context of the Ukrainian crisis. India does not give an unambiguous preference to anyone, but at the same time it makes overtures to everyone.
In addition, due to thousands of years of cultural and civilizational experience, Indians are accustomed to seeing a “double bottom” under any words and playing the long game. Therefore, the main competence in relations with Indian partners is patience and self–control, which we sometimes lack.
Among other things, Russia's experience shows that the status of a “special and privileged strategic partner” with India does not provide any special advantages. We need to find an area where we can be really useful and, accordingly, India needs us, and on this basis formulate an exclusive non-trivial proposal in line with its urgent needs and strategic goals.
As can be seen from recent events, Armenia and Poland seem to have succeeded to one degree or another.…