Russia-India ties making headway despite current turbulences: Putin

MOSCOW: Russia’s relations with India and its people are making “steady headway” despite the “current turbulence” in the world, President Vladimir Putin has said and expressed confidence that the two countries will maintain their traditionally friendly ties in “any alignment of political forces” after elections in India.

Putin’s remarks came on Wednesday when visiting External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar called on him at the Kremlin. “We are very pleased to note that despite the current turbulence in the world, relations with our traditional friends in Asia, with India and the Indian people are making steady headway,” Putin said.

The ties between India and Russia remained strong notwithstanding Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. India has not yet condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it has been maintaining that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.

“We know Prime Minister Modi’s position and we have repeatedly spoken about this position concerning his attitude to complex processes, including hotspots, to the situation in Ukraine,” Putin said.

“I have repeatedly informed him about the situation around this conflict. I know about his desire to do everything to resolve this problem peacefully, but we will now talk more about it. We will provide you with additional information about this situation,” Putin said.

Putin said he would be happy to see PM Modi in Russia. Jaishankar, on his part, conveyed the personal greetings of Prime Minister Modi and also handed over a letter to Putin in which he expressed his thoughts about the state of India-Russia cooperation and the progress that the two sides have made in recent days, according to a press release issued by the Kremlin.

Jaishankar also told Putin that Prime Minister Modi looks forward to visiting Russia next year. Putin also talked about bilateral trade relations.

“Our trade is growing for the second year running and at a confident pace. This year, the growth rates were even higher than last year,” he said.

India’s import of Russian crude oil has gone up significantly despite increasing disquiet over it in many Western countries. Jaishankar also informed Putin that bilateral trade has touched more than USD 50 billion.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Deputy Prime Minister and Chair of the Russian side of the Intergovernmental Russian-Indian Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation Denis Manturov and Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov also attended the meeting.