External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar recently held productive talks with the Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. Both sides reviewed the progress on broad-ranging cooperation between both the nations on nuclear, space, energy and defence sectors.
Highlights
- Both leaders discussed global and regional issues such as Afghanistan, Iran and Syria.
- According to S. Jaishankar, even though so many things are changing worldwide, India’s relationship with Russia has remained steady and contributed to security, global peace & stability.
- He also appreciated Russia’s support to India during second wave of covid-19 pandemic. India has become a partner of Russia to produce and use Sputnik V vaccine.
- They also reviewed the progress in different dimensions of our broad-ranging cooperation.
- They agreed upon holding 2+2 dialogue of foreign and defence ministers.
- Both the leaders also discussed connectivity, especially on North-South corridor.
India-Russia recent cooperation
Cooperation between India and Russia is focused on space, energy, nuclear and defence sectors. Both the countries are working on Kudankulam nuclear power plant project in Tamil Nadu. Concrete first port for unit five of the Kudankulam plant has taken place. Russia is also the original and strongest partner of India in space sector. Energy cooperation between them has strengthened very significantly in recent years. Energy cooperation is reflected through new potential investments and long-term commitments agreed in the field of oil and gas. Defence military-technical cooperation as well as industrial collaboration has also been strengthened because of Russian interest in Make in India programme.