A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi's scheduled departure to Kazan for the 16th BRICS Summit, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar hailed the longstanding and time-tested relationship of India-Russia, which has evolved to a Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership in the last 10 years.
"If you look at our history with Russia after Independence, Russia has never done anything to impact our interests negatively. Among the major countries, there are not many about whom you can say this," Jaishankar said at the NDTV World Summit.
In July, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Moscow on a two-day visit to Russia – his first to the country since 2019 and first to its capital after 2015.
During his visit, Russian President Vladimir Putin conferred the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called upon PM Modi, Russia's highest civilian award.
Much had changed in the region following the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, but India-Russia partnership has remained resilient in the wake of multiple geopolitical challenges that the world has been facing.
Today Russia's situation is different, I think Russia's relationship with the West has obviously broken down. So, you have a Russia which is turning much more towards Asia. We need to ask ourselves that if Russia is looking at Asia, should Russia not have multiple options in Asia? Should we not do what is good for us in national interests?" said the EAM.
While New Delhi has maintained a steady relationship with Moscow even as PM Modi repeatedly asserted that no solution can ever be arrived at the cost of human lives and that escalation of hostilities and violence is in no one's interest, India-Russia bilateral trade continues to increase touching close to $65 billion in 2023-24 mainly due to strong energy cooperation between the two countries.
"Obviously, Russia as a big natural resources power has a complementarity with India at this stage of development when we are big resource consumers. It is not just Russian oil; it could be fertilizers, metals, coal. There is a whole economic logic to it. There is also a basic strategic logic: that if you look at the Eurasian landmass, there are three big countries.". You always keep a balance, a relationship with the further away country in a very good state," added Jaishankar.
Russian President continues to hail India's rising global stature and the strength of its growing economy under Prime Minister Modi.
Modi and Putin are expected to have a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit, which is being held under the theme 'Strengthening Multilateralism for Just Global Development and Security.' It should be an important platform for leaders to discuss some key global issues.
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