Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his stop at Russia on his six-day, four nation tour of Europe Met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Welcoming Modi, Putin said, “the most important thing is the trust and friendship in our relationship between our countries and our people. I am glad to have this opportunity to meet you and discuss the whole spectrum of bilateral relations and international relations.”

As Putin met Modi for the annual bilateral summit, he announced that India will formally become a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) within a week. The SCO is a political, economic, and military bloc founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Reciprocating the warm welcome of Putin, Modi said that, he was happy to be able to visit Putin’s hometown as Prime Minister. He further added that, “India, Russia friendship is very old, deep and based on trust. India and Russia have always been together on international issues.” He also thanked Russia for all the initiatives taken and for its active role in getting India SCO membership. Modi mentioned his visit to the Piskariovskoye Cemetery on Thursday morning where he paid homage to the victims of the World War II. “You are a leader whose family has given sacrifices. Your brother was martyred,” Modi told Putin.

India and Russia signed a general framework agreement and credit protocol for constructing units 5 and 6 of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant at St Petersburg on Thursday. The two sides are expected to sign 12 agreements in wide- ranging sectors, including in science and technology, railways, cultural exchanges and other business areas between private parties also, in addition to a “vision statement” that the two leaders will release. Both sides decided to upgrade and intensify this cooperation, through joint manufacture, coproduction and co-development of military hardware and military spares, with increasing reliance on the adoption and sharing of future technologies.

Addressing CEOs of the two countries after the annual bilateral summit, Modi said India had last month approved a policy to allow local private companies to work with foreign players to manufacture defence equipment in a bid to cut reliance on imports. “India is sixth biggest manufacturer in the world and we want to raise the share of manufacturing in GDP from 16 per cent to 25 per cent. I invite Russian companies to join Indian companies in setting up manufacturing base taking advantage of the new policy” he said.

During an interview of both the leaders after the summit, Putin said that Russia does not have any military relations with Pakistan. Though he did not clearly mention anything regarding the Kashmir issue with Pakistan, he just said that Russia will always support India against any kind of terrorism. He noted that India and Russia, as part of their summit, are having a frank dialogue on all these threats. “India for us is one of our closest friends. We not only understand each other but also support each other” Putin said.

In the vision document issued after the Modi-Putin talks, Russia also supported, India being a permanent member in the reformed UN Security Council and a membership in the Nuclear Supplier Group and other non-proliferation regimes. Russia welcomes India’s application for the membership in Nuclear’s Suppliers Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement and reiterates its strong support for India’s earliest admission to these control regimes.

Ramamurti Rajaraman, Prof (Emeritus) School of Physical Sciences, JNU, told ET: “Today Russia remains India’s sole foreign partner for generation of nuclear power plants as both US and French firms are undergoing internal restructuring and therefore their role is uncertain.