Russia wants joint production of modern weapons with India

Moscow: India and Russia today discussed prospects for military-technical cooperation, including joint production of modern weapons during talks at the foreign minister level as part of the visit of Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. 

“Our interaction is strategic in this respect. Strengthening this cooperation meets the national interests of our states and helps maintain security in Eurasia,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a joint press conference with Dr.Jaishankar, here today.

Lavrov added: “We have respect for our Indian colleagues’ efforts to diversify ties in military-technical cooperation. We also understand and are willing to support their initiative to manufacture combat hardware under the ‘Make in India’ programme.  We are ready to interact with them in this respect.”

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Lavrov said Russia was “sincerely grateful” to India for its “responsible approach” to discussing and resolving regional and global problems in line with the principles of equitable and fair international cooperation. “This approach is typical of India’s position on the developments in Ukraine and around it,” he said.

Today, both nations agreed on several steps which, according to Lavrov, were expected to enable them to expand their cooperation. He said this included, as both nations prepare to launch the International North-South Transport Corridor, creating the Chennai-Vladivostok route and working together to develop the Northern Sea Route, “which is a promising avenue for cooperation”.

Both New Delhi and Moscow also agreed on the need to expand the contractual legal framework for bilateral relations, including by accelerating efforts to sign an agreement on protecting mutual investment. “There is another important multilateral document on the agenda – the agreement creating a Free Trade Area between India and the EAEU. It is currently being drafted,” Lavrov said.

Yesterday, Jaishankar had detailed talks as co-chair of the Russia-India Intergovernmental Commission for Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation with the Russian co-chair, Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov.

“Today, we noted the positive outcome of these talks consisting of concrete agreements on ways to further deepen our trade, economic and investment ties, as well as relations in other spheres within the Intergovernmental Commission’s purview,” Lavrov said. He added that yesterday’s talks and today’s meeting “reaffirmed the trust-based nature of Moscow’s relations with New Delhi, which are rooted in mutual respect and immune to momentary fluctuations”. According to him these contacts “fully reflected the very nature of our cooperation within our special privileged strategic partnership, as set forth in the documents signed by the leaders of Russia and India”.

Both Ministers also spoke in favour of maintaining proactive political dialogue to steadily strengthen the bilateral relations between India and Russia. “We paid special attention to stepping up our practical cooperation in addition to the agreements reached yesterday within the Intergovernmental Commission,” Lavrov said.

Indentifying energy as a strategic area in their cooperation, Lavrov said both countries desired to intensify energy cooperation. In this context, he also referred to the buildup of hydrocarbon exports from Russia to India, and interaction in the peaceful use of nuclear energy, primarily, the continuing implementation of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant project. “This is our practical contribution to India’s efforts to meet its needs in clean and safe energy of its own production,” he said.

Both Ministers also “positively” assessed their bilateral cooperation on manned space programmes, rocket engine manufacturing and satellite navigation systems.

“We spoke at length about regional and international affairs. We focused on our interaction at multilateral venues, primarily the UN, where Russia supports India’s striving to become a permanent Security Council member along with representatives of Latin America and Africa. We also discussed our cooperation in the SCO and BRICS where Russia’s turn “on watch” as chair starts on January 1, 2024,” Lavrov said.

– global bihari bureau