Description

The Adani Factor: Strategizing Future Global Energy Demand as War Policy – an Investigative Discourse Analysis
by Opal Sky Media

ISBN: 978-1-923292-02-4

VIDEO: PART 1 “Capitalism Is as Capitalism Does”

On 2024/11/13, to endorse Donald Trump‘s election win, and his second (non-consecutive) term as US President, Adani conglomerate CEO Gautam Adani pledged a US$10billion investment in US energy and infrastructure development. However, on 2024/11/20, from Washington DC, it was announced that Gautam Adani was now being indicted by the US Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] under bribery and fraud allegations: “The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani, executives of Adani Green Energy Ltd., and Cyril Cabanes, an executive of Azure Power Global Ltd., for conduct arising out of a massive bribery scheme”. The core accusation was that “Adani Green’s note offering raised $175 million from U.S. investors while bribery scheme was in progress”. The indictment was under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act [FCPA]. On 2025/02/10, however, President Trump suspended any enforcement of indictments under FCPA, claiming that it was detrimental to US business interests. His announcement came some 36 hours ahead of Indian PM Narendra Modi’s intended visit to the US.

These events echoed a pattern in which Adani business interests globally were solidified on the occasion of near concurrent state visits by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Indeed, this pattern has led India’s opposition parties, among others internationally, to forward accusations of crony Capitalism systematically leveled against Gautam Adani on the basis of his “special friendship” with Modi. As to the strategic agenda such crony capitalism may serve: should Adani be so cleared for US investment, that would position Adani, and hence India, as a major player in the global energy sector via its US stake. Such could arguably potentially even facilitate for Adani a place in US foreign policy war planning, for Adani has partnered with Israeli weapons companies (their products used in the bombardment of Gaza following the events of Oct. 7th), with Adani owning 70% of Israel’s Haifa Port, considered a vital Middle East port, and gateway through to Western Asia. Specifically, Israel’s Hermes 900 Drone, was in fact manufactured by a joint venture between Adani Enterprises and Israel’s Elbit Systems,

VIDEO: PART 2 “Future Funding Australia -‘Necessary War Stocks'”

However, Adani’s move into the “Defense” Industry is not confined to Israel. Following Trump’s suspension of FCPA cases, including the Adani SEC bribery indictment, the subsequent Trump/Modi meeting had a specific agenda: “PM Modi-Donald Trump Summit: Adani Group’s IMEC Plan To Counter China”. Adani-affiliated New Delhi TV [NDTV]news reported on 2025/02/09 that “(t)he discussions between PM Modi and Donald Trump will centre on defence cooperation, trade relations, and countering China’s growing economic and military influence”. At issue thus, is Adani’s future role in US foreign policy towards China, including war policy: “One of the key items on the agenda will be the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), a multi-national infrastructure initiative that aims to create an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).” In this US effort to undermine China’s BRI, “a crucial player in this ambitious project is Gautam Adani’s Adani Group, a company that has rapidly expanded its footprint across key infrastructure sectors, from ports and power plants to defence technology”.

IMEC is planned as “a 4,500-kilometre trade route connecting India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Europe (which) will significantly cut transit times compared to traditional sea routes”. It is specifically intended to counter China’s BRI, on the basis of China’s supposed “debt trap” approach:

“The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) is a massive infrastructure project designed to connect India to Europe via the Middle East. Unlike China’s BRI, which has been criticised for debt-trap diplomacy, IMEC is seen as a market-driven, transparent initiative that ensures participating nations retain control over their infrastructure. The $400 billion China-Iran Comprehensive Strategic Partnership has raised concerns among global players. The partnership includes extensive cooperation in energy, trade, and military domains, potentially giving China a stronger foothold in the Middle East (and) has further accelerated India’s push to build alternative supply chains and trade routes – one of the main motivations behind IMEC”.

Adani’s reporting correspondingly seeks to demonize China by inferring the nation indirectly supports Yemen’s Houthis: “According to a Center for International Maritime Security report, China indirectly supports Yemen’s Houthi rebels by purchasing large quantities of Iranian oil, which funds Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) (while) the IRGC, in turn, supplies the Houthis with weapons, some of which are reportedly Chinese-made”.
Adani hence describe the crucial role of their stake in Israel’s Haifa Port as strategic, with Israel/India defence trade being some $US10billion annually, a platform from which to cement India/US defense ties:

“The Adani Group has vast interests in energy, infrastructure, and logistics. The conglomerate’s strategic investments align closely with India’s foreign policy objectives and directly challenge China’s infrastructure dominance. The Adani Group’s acquisition of a 70 per cent stake in Israel’s Haifa Port is a crucial component of IMEC. This move does not just strengthen India-Israel ties but also provides India a foothold in the Mediterranean. Israel-India defence trade is valued at over $10 billion annually, with private-sector engagement further strengthening the relationship. The group is also actively acquiring strategic ports across the Indo-Pacific. Unlike China’s state-controlled model, Adani operates as an independent private entity. Beyond ports, the company is expanding into military drone production, semiconductors, and clean energy, sectors that are central to India’s economic future. The company in November last year announced a $10 billion investment in US energy infrastructure, creating up to 15,000 jobs in the United States.”

In relation to this incipient India/Israel/US defence nexus: significantly, the Trump/Modi meeting came after Trump’s announcement of a 25% tariff on Chinese goods, with India now concerned over potential trade friction. About this, Adani sought to lead Modi’s case: “India and the United States have steadily deepened their military and defence cooperation over the past two decades, driven in part by China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific and beyond (such that) the upcoming Trump-Modi meeting is expected to focus on multiple areas of defence collaboration”. Specifically, Modi was seeking “access to advanced US military technology, including jet engine manufacturing, drone technology, and cyber defence systems” to augment both countries’ military cooperation with the Malabar trilateral naval exercise with Japan.
Indeed, Adani’s business dealings with Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems have led activist collective StopAdani to assert that “Adani is profiting from (what they term the) ongoing genocide in Gaza”. Consequently, of ethical concern now, following Trump’s suspension of the FCPA grounds for US SEC prosecution of Gautam Adani, is the Adani Group’s recently announced nuclear investment plans in India that could well position the company at the forefront of the global energy marketplace. With its aforementioned pledge for US investment is again in the US nuclear energy sector: “according to sources, the group is exploring opportunities in nuclear energy, utilities, and port development on the East Coast”. As mentioned, “The renewed interest in the US market follows a shift in policy under President Donald Trump’s administration (when) in February 2025, Trump ordered a halt to the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which had previously posed legal hurdles for the Adani Group”.

This prospect of a US/Israel/India “defense” agreement now venturing into nuclear energy investment arguably necessitates a reconsideration of Adani’s ethical responsibilities in relation to its conduct. These concerns are long-standing and range from accusations of Adani/Modi crony Capitalism (which Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi characterizes as “corruption”); workplace neglect in Australia’s Queensland-based Carmichael mine project, of which a whistleblower was reported as cautioning any workers teaming with Adani to “be prepared to die out there”; to accusations of racism and indigenous land rights violation: “India’s Adani Group, whose billionaire chairman has been indicted for fraud by U.S. prosecutors, is facing accusations of racism at its Australian coal unit after an Aboriginal group filed a complaint with the country’s Human Rights Commission”. Most disconcerting perhaps in this Australian context is Adani’s potential role in any expansion of Australia’s uranium mining sector to accompany what then Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles inaugurated as an Australian missile industry and the cultivation of “necessary war stocks” in Australia’s Future Fund, of which it was recently revealed had also invested in Israel’s Elbit Systems:

The 18-year-old government fund, whose investments now exceed $230 billion, currently holds more than half a billion dollars’ worth of shares in weapons manufacturers and war-related companies, including Elbit Systems,.. As of June 30, 2024 according to the Future Fund’s most recent Periodic Investment Report, the value of the fund’s shareholdings in a list of 30 “defence companies” was $503.3 million… Since the Gaza genocide began last October, the Future Fund’s holdings in Elbit Systems, for example, have jumped from $488,768 to $1.33 million, an increase of 172 percent.”

As Indian-Australian immigration escalates following a 2023 migration deal, any post-2025/05/03 election LIB/NAT government headed by Peter Dutton could, given this “war stocks” Future Fund agenda, conceivably develop an Australian nuclear industry which includes nuclear weapons. Australia’s mining and green energy deals with Adani Green, the subject of the US SEC corruption indictment, further suggest that any LIB/NAT government could revive stalled uranium sales as recently advocated by former LIB Prime Minister John Howard as specifically to India as was precipitated in a meeting between NAT senator Matt Canavan with Gautam Adani and India’s Minister for Atomic Energy. Any such AUKUS-bound LIB/NAT Australian government further facilitating Adani integration into the US defense sector, as is arguably Adani/Modi’s intention to subvert China’s BRI, would hence be subordinate to a greater US/Israel/India’s IMEC Indo-Pacific global energy / defence (war) policy. Given the Adani Group’s dubious ethical conduct, Adani/Australia arrangements are not only compromised at the level of corporate accountability, but if extended to a LIB/NAT platformed nuclear and uranium expert industry, coupled with Australia’s AUSMIN initiated domestic missile industry, could be catastrophic, especially as the US prepares Australia as its proxy in a future war with China.

NOTE: For hyperlinked textual links to sources, and footnote citations, please download the ebook and/or refer to the sample page illustrations.