Russia is looking at a new overland route to reach the Indian Ocean, and India could end up being one of the destinations on that map.

The idea came from Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, who spoke about it in an interview with Russian news agency TASS.

According to Khusnullin, one possible route could run through Turkmenistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan before reaching the Indian Ocean. He said any route that eventually connects to India would work for Russia.

It is worth noting that this is still just an idea at this stage. No route has been finalised, and there is no construction plan or timeline in place yet.

So why is Russia even thinking about this? It comes down to risk. Two major shipping routes, the Strait of Hormuz and the Bosphorus, carry a huge share of the world’s oil and gas trade.

The Strait of Hormuz alone handles roughly a quarter of global oil trade and about a fifth of LNG shipments. With tensions between the US and Iran running high, Russia wants a backup option in case these sea routes get disrupted.

A rail line to India would give Russia another way to move goods to South Asia, especially if shipping through the Gulf becomes unpredictable. That said, building something like this is far from simple.

The route would pass through Iran and Afghanistan, both of which come with their own political and security complications. It would also cut across difficult mountain terrain, adding to the construction challenge.

This proposal did not come out of nowhere either. Just days earlier, on 7 August, India and Russia held talks in New Delhi under their Working Group on Modernization and Industrial Cooperation. Railways came up as one of the topics, alongside the Vande Bharat train project and signalling technology.

Russia already runs an extensive rail network internationally. Its national carrier operates 40 long distance routes connecting the country to 19 nations across Europe and Asia, including China, Kazakhstan and Belarus. Whether India joins that network through this new corridor remains to be seen.

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