India joins hands with Russia for disaster management

India and Russia on Tuesday joined hands for minimising the consequences of natural calamities like floods and earthquakes.

Home minister Rajnath Singh and Russian minister for Civil Defence, Vladimir Andreevich Puchkov signed an MoU on cooperation in Prevention and Elimination of Consequences of Emergencies in the field of Disaster Management to acquire a new character with enhanced levels of cooperation in the field of disaster risk reduction.

Singh said the cooperation in areas such as controlling floods, minimising its consequences as well as collaboration in capacity-building has been rightly highlighted in the Joint Implementation Plan.

“We hope that with the signing of this plan, the two countries will acquire a new character with enhanced levels of cooperation in the field of Disaster Risk Reduction,” he said. Singh said India was one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world.

The country is committed to convergence of disaster risk reduction with developmental programmes, he said.