India’s “bilateral cooperation” with Russia “has continued to grow” across many areas and even “diversified” through “expanding our agenda”, Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said on Friday.
The chief Indian diplomat was delivering his opening remarks at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New Delhi.
Significantly, Jaishankar’s comments come a day after US Deputy National Security Advisor for International Cooperation Daleep Singh warned New Delhi of “consequences” if it tried to “circumvent or backfill” the western sanctions against Russia.
He was responding to a question on recent purchases of crude oil from Russia by Indian companies.
Besides Singh, UK’s Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss also held consultations with Jaishankar in Delhi on Thursday, in a bid to convince the Indian government to scale down its commercial dealings with Russia.
Jaishankar underlined in his remarks that the meeting with Lavrov was taking place in a “difficult international environment quite apart from the pandemic”.
“India, as you are aware, has always been in favour of resolving differences and disputes through dialogue and diplomacy,” stated Jaishankar, as he spelled out New Delhi’s stance on the security crisis in Ukraine.
An official communique issued by the Indian Foreign Ministry also quoted Jaishankar as expressing "particular concern" over "global volatility in different domains" due to the crisis in Ukraine.
"It is important for both countries that their economic, technological and people to people contacts remain stable and predictable," Jaishankar said.
The Indian minister also noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin have been “in regular touch and have spoken to each other on multiple occasions this year”.
In a telephone conversation on 24 February, Modi urged Putin for “an immediate cessation of violence” and a “return to the path of diplomatic negotiations and dialogue”.
In the telephone call on 7 March, the Indian leader “welcomed” the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine and even asked for direct consultations between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Lavrov: India, Russia Have ‘Intensified’ Cooperation
While delivering his opening remarks at Friday’s meeting, the Russian foreign minister noted that the bilateral ties have been “very sustainable during many difficult times in the past” as well.
“We have been developing a specially privileged partnership with New Delhi and this has been one of the key priorities of Russian foreign policy,” Lavrov underlined.
He said that that both the countries have “intensified” their cooperation across different fields.
Besides stepping up its energy imports from Russia, both the countries are also negotiating a government-to-government deal for India to import fertiliser.
The US Treasury has already exempted Russian mineral fertilisers from possible sanctions, as per an order by Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on 24 March.
"We continue to implement projects in the areas of energy, science and technology, outer space, pharmaceuticals and industry. We continue to cooperate in ways to fight COVID infection," Lavrov stated.
Lavrov recalled that the 21st Annual Summit between Modi and Putin in New Delhi last December was a “very useful meeting”.
6 December 2021, 19:00 GMT
At the summit, both the leaders reiterated their pledge to increase bilateral trade by $30 billion by 2025. The countries also signed an inter-governmental agreement on a programme for military-technical cooperation for 2021-2030, marking a further expansion of defence ties.
He also said that the next date for the intergovernmental meeting on economic cooperation was already under discussion.
Lavrov further appreciated India’s position on the security crisis in Ukraine, as he panned the Western countries for reducing “any meaningful international issue and processes”.
“You know our position. We don’t hide anything and we appreciate that India is taking in the situation in its factual entirety, and not just in a one-sided way,” Lavrov said, concluding his remarks.
President Putin has squarely blamed the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) for the current crisis in Ukraine, saying that that the military alliance's "eastward expansion" since 1990 threatens Moscow's security.
The major objectives of Russia's "special military operation" are to "demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine" and ensure that Kiev enshrines a "neutral" status in its constitution.