Putin Courts Global South With Energy, Transit Deals — SkimNews
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- Putin met approximately 18 heads of state across Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), Vladivostok (Russia's Far East), and New Delhi, plus a state visit by Vietnam's leader, with discussions focused on fuel, trade, and transit rather than the Ukraine war.
- Russia is now importing refined fuel from traditional export destinations Belarus, Turkey, and India due to Ukraine's strikes on Russian oil refineries, while simultaneously pushing the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline (50 bcm/year to China via Mongolia) and signing a new strategic oil reserves hub in Vietnam.
- BRICS now comprises 11 economies representing about 40% of global GDP with mutual trade turnover exceeding $1 trillion last year; Russia's trade with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) topped $400 billion in 2025, and Asia accounted for 73.4% of Russia's total trade.
- Russia is lobbying two transit corridors to bypass Middle East disruption — the 7,200 km International North-South Transport Corridor (Baltic ports to Mumbai via the Caspian and Iran) and the 5,600 km Northern Sea Route across the Arctic, which Beijing used for its first commercial operations in August.
- Putin secured $7.7 billion in investments at the Vladivostok forum plus Vietnam deals, while his meetings with India's Modi, Indonesia's President Subianto, and Vietnam's To Lam signaled 'strategic autonomy' to the US amid CIA and Treasury consultations with Moscow and Trump's envoy visits.
- APEC's mid-November 2026 summit in China is tipped as a possible venue for a first Putin-Xi-Trump trilateral meeting, where Moscow may face pressure from partners to settle the Ukraine war politically — partners wary of sanctions fallout and Black Sea grain disruptions.
Why it matters: Putin's energy-focused courtship of the Global South secures trade lifelines as BRICS trade exceeded $1 trillion and Asia now accounts for 73.4% of Russia's trade. But Moscow's reliance on India and Belarus for refined fuel exposes the wartime economy's vulnerability — and those same partners may push for a political settlement at November's APEC summit in China.
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