Amidst global energy market volatility driven by the West Asia crisis, Russia has proposed increasing its crude oil and natural gas supplies to India, strengthening bilateral energy ties and aiming for USD 100 billion in annual trade by 2030.
India and Russia are set to expand their defence cooperation, with India expressing interest in procuring additional S-400 missile systems. Discussions took place ahead of the India-Russia annual summit.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted Russian President Vladimir Putin on his birthday and conveyed that he was looking forward to welcoming him in India for the upcoming India-Russia annual summit.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has called for India and Russia to adopt a creative and innovative approach to address complex geopolitical challenges, emphasizing diversification and expansion of cooperation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit India around December 5 to hold annual summit talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to further solidify bilateral strategic ties.
'Friendship between our countries is higher than the highest mountain and deeper than the deepest ocean,' the defence minister told the Russian president.
Dar also said Pakistan views Russia as an important player in the West, South and Central Asia, and strengthening mutually beneficial cooperation with Russia remains an important priority for Pakistan's foreign policy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is deeply concerned by the war in Ukraine and his meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York demonstrates his commitment to finding a way forward and contributing in any way possible to a resolution of the conflict, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said.
Ukraine and Russia need to engage with each other to find a solution to the ongoing conflict between them, India said on Friday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held wide-ranging talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv under the shadow of the raging war.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin held the 21st India-Russia summit, covering an array of areas with an aim to further enhance the special and privileged strategic partnership between the two countries.
The annual meeting of the defence ministers of India and Russia, slated for Thursday, has been deferred till October 10 due to inability of the visiting minister to reach New Delhi.
Ukraine's First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova has conveyed to her Indian interlocutors Kyiv's desire to build a stronger and closer relationship with New Delhi.
Russia President Vladimir Putin on Monday described India as a great power, a friendly nation and a time-tested friend and echoed common concerns over terrorism, drug trafficking and organised crime as he held wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In his opening remarks at the talks, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh asserted that India is confident of overcoming the challenges with a strong political will and an inherent capability of its people.
Singh's comments that the nuclear option should not be resorted to is a message to Russia as well as Western powers backing Ukraine, people familiar with the matter said. Ukraine does not have any nuclear arsenal.
"We foresee a very intensive engagement during the day that will culminate in the summit," the MEA spokesperson said.
With an aim to extend their military and technical cooperation till 2020, India and Russia will sign an inter-governmental agreement during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Moscow this December. The 10-year IGC-MTC, which was signed in 1998, began in 2000 and will come to an end in 2010. The protocol signed by Antony and his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov today was for extension of the IGC-MTC till 2020, an agreement for which would be signed during PM's visit.
Union Defence Minister A K Antony arrived in Moscow on Tuesday for a crucial meeting of a key joint defence commission as the two countries are poised to finalise new co-ventures in strategic weapons, including investment and technical parameters of 5th generation fighters.
At a joint media briefing with Lavrov, Jaishankar listed issues such as "factors of instability" such as terrorism and its cross-border manifestation and said it remains a "major concern".
"The joint development of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft will mark the start of cooperation in the development of major state-of-the-art new technology weapon systems," Antony said, adding that both India and Russia would have equal financial and technological stakes and issues related to the intellectual property and specific requirement of the Indian Air Force have been resolved.
Russia enjoys a very unique place in India's foreign relations with their strategic partnership covering the entire spectrum of the bilateral cooperation, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Moscow.
'It is time India calibrated a policy of what Indira Gandhi called equi-proximity rather than equi-distance between the US and Russia.'
India and Russia on Monday decided to extend the tenure of an inter-governmental commission for military cooperation by another 10 years to 2020. The two sides inched closer to resolving the Gorshkov aircraft carrier price and T-90 tanks technology transfer issues. New Delhi and Moscow also decided to form an apex body headed by the defence secretaries of the two countries to coordinate the operation of several working groups for military cooperation.
Defence Minister A K Antony will co-chair the commission meeting with Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to hold talks on a wide-ranging agenda of military technical cooperation, covering key spheres, including timely delivery of contracted military systems, in the light of the reported settlement of the cost-escalation issue and supply of defence systems.
Manmohan-Putin to ink four aggreements in Moscow
In the summit as well as in the inaugural '2+2' defence and foreign ministerial talks, the two sides are also expected to focus on the situation in Afghanistan and the rising threat of terrorism including from groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed.
Russia made the commitment during the meeting between defence minister Rajnath Singh and his Russian counterpart Gen Sergey Shoigu in Moscow, sources said.
But private Indian defence firms prefer to do business with the West. Indian CEOs say they encounter difficulties in obtaining full and timely payment from Russian partners.
Singh, who arrived in Moscow on Wednesday on a three-day visit to attend a crucial meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), pressed for expediting supply of a number of weapons systems, ammunition and spares to India by Russia under contracts which were concluded earlier.
The long-delayed aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya will be inducted into Indian Navy by Defence Minister A K Antony during his Russia visit slated between November 15-17.
The $10.5 billion arms and equipment deal helped to arrest the recent drift in the 'special and privileged' strategic partnership, observes Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
India is also likely to push for a Free Trade Agreement with the Eurasian Economic Zone and is sharing details of the study it conducted in this regard.
India on Monday did some plain-speaking with China over its blocking of the Indian bid to get JeM chief Masood Azhar banned by the UN and warned the global community of "serious consequences" if it continues to adopt "double standards" in dealing with terrorism.
INS Vikramaditya is not the only thing on Defence Minister AK Anthony's agenda during his current visit to Moscow. Also on the anvil is the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft joint development project which, if finalised and signed, could emerge as India's largest joint defence programme costing around 11 billion dollars, reports Nandan Unnikrishnan.
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