SOURCE: TIMES NOW
In wake of the changing dynamics of world politics, with Donald Trump losing re-election to the White House and a belligerent China at India’s nerves, Russia continues to maintain that nothing will hamper Moscow’s ties with New Delhi, especially in defence cooperation.
“Defence cooperation of Russia with India is immune to any restriction. Russia-India relations are proceeding with great confidence. We are closely watching India’s relations with the US and other countries,” Roman Babushkin, Deputy Chief of Russian Embassy in India, said on Thursday.
Stating that “defence cooperation happens in strategic partnership and mutual trust”, he said that Russia does not have any “particular reservation but we must take into account all nuances”.
Babushkin also said that India’s “other ties” do not come at the expense of Russian interest, and that “there is no doubt on the credibility of Indian friends”.
“We are talking about cooperation with a third nation. It requires more consultations and will take time. We are in talks with not only Southeast Asian countries but also those like Philippines,” the Russian diplomat said when asked about his reaction on the exports of the BrahMos missile to Southeast Asia.
Russia on SCO
Russia has also backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stand at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and echoed his opening remarks where he raised the issue of the country raising bilateral issues at the Summit.
“It is part of the charter and basic focus to not bring bilateral issues in agenda, it should be avoided for the progress of multilateral fora. The SCO is meant to resolve global and financial issues affecting the region. We hope that India-Pakistan bilateral issues should be avoided and such incidents would not appear,” he said.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is a pact between India, Russia, China, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
On China
Commenting on the ensuing tensions between India and China along the Line of Actual Control near Eastern Ladakh, which has gone on for more than six months, the envoy told reporters that Russia is concerned it may have repercussions on global platform such as the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) and SCO, but it will be good if members of the fora do not bring in tensions during these groupings.
“There is tension between India and China but we are seeing will on both sides to find a solution,” he added, according to news agency ANI.
