New Delhi: Noting that it feels “good to be back in Moscow”, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, who is on a five-day visit to Russia, underlined that great care has been taken to “nurture” ties between the two countries and the relationship will get “stronger”.
“This relationship will get stronger. We may not always agree… [but we have] taken care not to cause a problem for the other country,” he said, addressing an interaction with the Indian diaspora. Both countries, he added, will continue to show “sensitivity”.
“When we think about the relationship with India and Russia, it is in many ways actually an exceptional relationship. Exceptional not just for the two countries, but actually in world politics,” said Jaishankar Tuesday evening.
Jaishankar, who met with his counterpart Sergey Lavrov, besides Deputy Prime Minister and Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov, underlined the importance of the bilateral relationship and how it has remained constant.
His remarks come at a time when India has looked to improve ties with the Western world, especially the US. As a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the US and its allies have imposed heavy sanctions on Russia, including cutting Moscow off from international banking networks.
And easing up of the payment mechanism between India and Russia has been a key focus area of Jaishankar’s visit.
Jaishankar sought to juxtapose the relationship between Moscow and New Delhi, with those between other major countries — such as Russia and China, Russia and the US, India and China — saying they have all gone through good and “not so good” periods.
“To me what is actually exceptional about India-Russia relations is that from the early 50s, actually for 70-80-odd years — there have been big changes in this period — when Russia has transformed, India has grown and yet if there is one constant in world politics it has actually been the relationship between India and Russia,” Jaishankar said.
His visit to Russia comes at a time when the India-Russia annual bilateral summit has not been held for two years. The last summit — the highest forum for talks between the heads of government of the two countries — was held on 6 December 2021 in New Delhi.
On Tuesday, Jaishankar noted the “significant progress” made in ties across domains, while Manturov noted that India-Russia trade will cross $50 billion by the end of this year and set a new “historical maximum”.
Jaishankar also talked about developments regarding a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), a bloc of five post-Soviet states, Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
In-person negotiations on the FTA, he said, are expected to begin by the “end of January”.
India and Russia Tuesday signed an agreement on the expansion of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on medicines, pharmaceutical substances and medical devices.
A comprehensive and productive meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov of Russia on our bilateral economic cooperation.
Noted the significant progress in trade, finance, connectivity, energy, civil aviation and nuclear domains.
Appreciated the greater focus on… pic.twitter.com/fPUyDqHL5X
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) December 26, 2023
Kudankulam is India’s largest nuclear power plant, consisting of six reactors built in collaboration by Russia’s Atomstroyexport and the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL). Two of the six reactors are currently operational.
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Trade and new areas of cooperation
In a post on X, Jaishankar talked about his meeting with Manturov, saying he “appreciated the greater focus on exploring new opportunities”.
“Discussed making our cooperation more balanced and sustainable in different dimensions…Witnessed signing of agreements on nuclear power and in areas of medicines, pharmaceutical substances and medical devices,” he added.
Trade in goods between Russia and India increased by 276 percent between 2021-22 and 2022-23, to $49.3 billion from $13.12 billion, according to the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The growth in trade has been led primarily by Indian imports of Russian oil, which increased from $5.25 billion in 2021-22 to $38.814 billion in 2022-23.
However, there have been concerns in Moscow about the rupee-ruble payment mechanism devised as a workaround to the Western sanctions imposed on Russia in light of its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The mechanism has left Russia with “billions of Indian rupees” in Indian banks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on a visit to India in May, adding that discussions were under way on the need to transfer the rupees to another currency.
Jaishankar acknowledged the concerns Tuesday, saying at his diaspora interaction that a “lack of familiarity” between Russian and Indian banks was a hurdle to the Indian-Russian payment mechanism.
Expanding the use of national currencies in mutual settlements was also on the agenda when Jaishankar met Lavrov Wednesday, a statement published by the Russian foreign ministry ahead of their meeting said.
Highlighting the growth of trade between the two countries, Jaishankar urged Indian businesses to find opportunities to expand exports to Russia.
“While the economic relationship has grown, we would like to see India’s exports to Russia also grow, maybe not exactly equal, but in a large measure,” Jaishankar said, adding that India-Russia cooperation in the sectors of space, nuclear and defence domains was reflective of the “high degree” of trust between Moscow and New Delhi.
Speaking to Indians based in Russia, Jaishankar said India was keen to “propagate” the use of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and RuPay cards to promote the acceptance of the Indian rupee as a mode of international payment settlements.
“Where India is concerned, we are today very keen to propagate UPI, to propagate the use of RuPay cards. We would like Indian platforms, Indian mechanisms, Indian currencies in a way for settlement to have greater international acceptance,” said Jaishankar.
‘Strong Russian participation’ in Vibrant Gujarat
During his opening remarks at his meeting with Lavrov, Jaishankar said he believes the Indo-Russian relationship has lived up to the “responsibilities of a special and privileged partnership”.
“Our relationship has been very strong, very steady… I am told that this year we have already met six times. I believe this is our seventh meeting,” Jaishankar said.
The two met at G20, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), BRICS and ASEAN events earlier, according to Jaishankar.
Highlighting Indian expectations of growth in bilateral economic cooperation, Jaishankar said, “We expect a strong Russian participation at the Vibrant Gujarat meeting in January, including a lot of governors from the [Russian] far east.”
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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