BackForeign secretary Shringla discusses ways to strengthen strategic partnership with Russian minister
Shringla said they discussed some regional and international issues of interest including cooperation in the UN and UNSCHe extended Lavrov invitation on behalf of S Jaishankar to visit India
PremiumForeign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Wednesday met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and discussed the development of a special and privileged partnership between the two countries.
"They discussed the wide-ranging Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between India and Russia and ways to further strengthen it," said the Indian Embassy in Moscow in a tweet.
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Shringla later said the Russian Foreign Minister emphasised the importance he attaches to the special privileged strategic partnership between India and Russia.
"We also spoke about the annual summit and he (Lavrov) said President Putin was looking forward to his visit to India at the invitation of Prime Minister Modi and that the visit would take place sometime on a date to be decided," Shringla said.
"There are a number of other visits that we spoke about -- there is a visit of the Deputy Prime Minister for the Inter-Governmental Commission with our Minister for External Affairs. We are looking at the visits of our army and naval chiefs. There are a large number of exchanges that are on the cards for the India-Russia relationship," he said.
Shringla said they discussed some regional and international issues of interest including cooperation in the UN and UNSC where India is a non-permanent member now.
"We also spoke about issues like Afghanistan which both countries have a direct interest in," he said.
The Foreign Secretary said they also discussed cooperation in the area of vaccines, global responses to Covid-19 and how India and Russia can work together in partnership to deal with this issue.
"There is a lot happening in the relationship. It is a very important relationship for both countries. I think we will see some developments reinforce the close and strategic partnership we both enjoy," he said.
Shringla extended Lavrov invitation on behalf of Jaishankar to visit India and the Russian Minister said he is looking forward to doing so at the earliest.
Meeting with deputy foreign minister
Shringla also met Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov on Wednesday and discussed a range of issues pertaining to Russian-Indian interaction, including the schedule of the upcoming political contacts.
Both the sides underlined their aspiration to increase the trade and economic turnover by expanding cooperation in traditional and high-tech spheres.
They also noted the similarity of approaches by Russia & India to pressing global and regional issues, as well as stressed the intention of the two countries to continue coordination of efforts at international and regional platforms, including the UN, G20, BRICS, SCO, RIC and EAEU.
Working more closely with Russia
India would like to work more closely with Russia on taking forward the cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, Shringla said in a meeting hosted by the Diplomatic Academy of Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow.
He said no discussion on the relationship between Indian and Russia can be complete without the mention of the Indo-Pacific.
"We would like to work more closely with Russia on taking forward the cooperation in the region, in particular along with our friends from the ASEAN, South East Asia and under organisations like the ASEAN regional forum and the East Asia summit," he said.
With inputs from agencies.
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