Russia is deepening its "privileged strategic partnership" with India, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.
While addressing a function, Lavrov emphasized Russia's enhanced interaction with major global players such as China, India, Iran, North Korea, and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, the state-run TASS news agency reported.
"We consider it a priority to develop cooperation with most states in the world," Lavrov stated in a session of the board of trustees of the Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund. He noted that Russia's cooperation with China has become an "unprecedented level of mutual trust," while relations with India keep evolving under a "particularly privileged strategic partnership."
Lavrov also pointed to major progress in Russia's friendly ties with Iran and North Korea. He also emphasized Moscow's efforts to strengthen cooperation with allies in the CIS, in formats like the Commonwealth, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), and the Eurasian Economic Union.
Russia reaffirmed its commitment to its relationship with India earlier this year when President Vladimir Putin, in a letter to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on India's 76th Republic Day, termed bilateral relations as a "special and privileged strategic partnership."
As a part of their ongoing high-level interactions, Putin will make a trip to India this year, continuing the annual reciprocal bilateral interactions between the leaders of the two countries. Modi and Putin also meet and talk to each other frequently, with the former being the norm and in-person meetings on the margins of international summits being the exception.
In July of last year, Prime Minister Modi went to Moscow for the 22nd Russia-India Summit. He proceeded to Kazan in October to attend the BRICS Summit and further solidified the robust strategic and diplomatic relation between the two countries.
Read also| India Asks Pakistan to Leave Kashmir and Cease Justifying Terrorism
