Putin meets PM Modi in Delhi, calls India Russia’s ‘time-tested friend’ top point

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited India on Monday and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in Delhi. Describing India as a “great power” and a “time-tested” friend, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday identified terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime as common challenges facing the two countries.

In his opening remarks during a personal conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here, Putin also expressed concern over Afghanistan’s development and said that India and Russia will continue to coordinate on key challenges facing the region.

“We see India as a great power, a friendly nation and an old friend. Relations between our countries are developing and we look to the future,” Putin said.

Putin’s second foreign trip in the Kovid epidemic

Putin’s visit to India was his second foreign trip during the Kovid epidemic. Modi said Putin’s second foreign visit during the COVID-19 pandemic reflects his personal commitment to India-Russia relations and the special and privileged strategic partnership between the two sides is getting stronger.

Modi said that in the last few decades the world has seen many fundamental changes and different types of geopolitical equations and changes, but the friendship between India and Russia has remained intact.

The Prime Minister said, “Your visit to India reflects your commitment to relations with India.” Putin said the two sides continue to cooperate on global issues and there are similarities in their positions on many issues.

“Naturally, we are concerned about everything related to terrorism. I mean the fight against terrorism and the fight against drug trafficking and organized crime,” Putin said.

“In this regard, of course, we cannot be concerned about the situation and how it is developing in Afghanistan,” he said.

Bilateral cooperation between India, Russia

The Russian leader also noted the growing cooperation between India and Russia in the areas of environment, trade and investment and high technology. “In 2020, we saw a decline of over 17 per cent in business turnover. In the first nine months of this year, the growth was already over 38 per cent,” he said.

“This also applies to investment activities. Now 38 billion (dollars) are distributed almost equally, with a little more investment from the Russian side.

“But we cooperate, we are working in very important, promising areas – these are energy, high technologies and space. And I am sure that the programs that we talked about will be implemented, including one Including the training of Indian astronauts,” Putin said.

The Russian leader, who is here on a very short visit for the summit, said he is “extremely happy to be able to visit the friendly country of India.” The summit took place hours after the foreign and defense ministers of the two countries held ‘2+2’ talks with an aim to widen the scope of discussions on strategically important issues.

The day began with Defense Minister Rajnath Singh with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoygu under the framework of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military and Military-Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-M&MTC).

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar separately held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Then the foreign and defense ministers of both sides held a ‘2+2’ dialogue.

Lavrov and Shoygu arrived here late on Sunday.

Combined production of over six lakh AK-203 assault rifles

At the end of talks between the defense ministers, the two sides inked an agreement for joint production of over six lakh AK-203 assault rifles at a manufacturing facility in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, besides another on military cooperation for 10 years. Compromised.

The rifles will be manufactured for the Indian Armed Forces at a cost of around Rs 5,000 crore. The agreements were signed at the 20th meeting of IRIGC-M&MTC.

(with PTI inputs)

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