China and India’s energy diplomacy has been proactive and reactive. Both countries have taken various measures – political, economic, military and diplomatic – to foster close ties with all energy rich countries across the world, including those so called “pariah states” such as Iran, Sudan, and Myanmar. However, both countries have had to alter their proactive policy measures toward those countries out of external pressures from both state and non-state actors. China and India’s energy diplomacy toward Iran, Sudan and Myanmar are three typical cases in point. Two-level pressures have shaped China and India’s proactive and reactive energy diplomacy. At the domestic level, both countries have tried to maximize their wealth by helping their national oil companies (NOCs) to go out to maximize their commercial profits, which benefits both governments’ revenues and enhances employment. At the international level, both countries have been seeking great power status so they have become sensitive to social opprobrium on their close ties with those “pariah states.” Moreover, China and India have been asymmetrically dependent on the United States and its allies especially Saudi Arabia for energy security and India has heavily depended on Israel for imports of advanced weapons to modernize its military forces.