India Keeps Saying It's Neutral. The UNSC Vote, the Oil Purchases, and the Condolence Book Say Otherwise.

India's BRICS chairmanship in 2026 was supposed to showcase its role as a bridge between East and West. Instead, it showcased the impossibility of that role during a war that forces everyone to choose.

The vote: India co-sponsored UNSC Resolution 2817 condemning Iran's attacks on Gulf states. This placed India firmly in the US-Israel camp on the one vote that counted. You cannot simultaneously vote to condemn one party and offer to mediate between them. Pakistan made no such mistake. It voted for neither side's resolution while offering its territory for talks.

The oil: India's three major refinery companies are buying Iranian crude under Trump's sanctions waiver, joining the 90 million barrels India committed from Russia. India is profiting from the war while claiming neutrality. The purchases are legal (the waiver permits them) and hypocritical (you don't buy a belligerent's oil while claiming non-alignment).

The silence: the IRIS Dena was returning from India's own MILAN naval exercise when a US submarine torpedoed it. 84 dead. India signed a condolence book. That was it.

The Chabahar port waiver expires April 26. India informed the US Treasury it intends to "wind down all activities." The port that was supposed to give India a non-Pakistan route to Central Asia is being abandoned under American pressure during the war India won't oppose.

Modi compared the crisis to COVID-19 in his parliamentary address. The comparison was apt in one way: both exposed that India's strategic autonomy is a peacetime luxury that disappears when powerful states demand alignment.

FAQ

Is India actually buying Iranian oil?

Yes, under the temporary US sanctions waiver. The purchases are legal. India secured ship-by-ship Hormuz transit for LPG carriers through direct negotiation with Iran. The transactions use rupee-rial settlement (avoiding dollar exposure) and go through India's UCO Bank, which is designated for sanctions-adjacent trade.

Could India have been the mediator instead of Pakistan?

Not after the UNSC co-sponsorship. Iran views India as aligned with its attackers. Pakistan filled the mediator vacuum by maintaining equidistance. Colonel MacGregor told Tucker Carlson that India would be the "ideal mediator." Instead, Pakistan got the call. India got the condolence book.

Will India lose Chabahar permanently?

If the waiver lapses on April 26, India's decade-long investment becomes stranded. The strategic loss is significant: Chabahar is India's only non-Pakistan route to Afghanistan and Central Asia. The TRIPP corridor through Armenia could eventually provide an alternative, but that's years away.