Russia today acknowledged that ties with India were under “stress” due to tectonic geopolitics shifts while ostensibly pointing towards the Ukraine conflict.
Addressing a conference on ‘Next Steps in India-Russia Strategic Partnership: Old Friends New Horizons’, Russia Ambassador Denis Alipov, however, emphasised that Moscow wanted to diversify its overall cooperation with India while asserting that the ties between the two countries were not directed against a third country.
Talking about various dimensions of time-tested relations between Russia and India, he reaffirmed Moscow’s support for a permanent seat for New Delhi at the UN Security Council.
The envoy said both countries have forged a “very rich architecture” of cooperation that was beneficial to the world and were now looking at the emerging scenario in the trade sector in view of new economic realities.
Taking a sharp dig at the United States, he said that Russian technology was quite advanced and that Moscow did not mix technology transfer with politics, unlike the US which was rather good at “advertising.”
“Sometimes it’s amusing to read about the US posting about its defense cooperation with India as it offers something exclusive. Nothing near the level of advanced technology transfer we do offer. What the US is good at though is advertising including the poor performance of Russian weapons in Ukraine,” Alipov said.
“Our relations have always been friendly, equal, trusted and robust. Maybe not as comprehensive as we want them to be, but still very much diversified, mutually beneficial and supportive…respecting each other’s interests and meeting core aspirations of our nations,” the envoy added.
During the address, Alipov highlighted the treaty of 1993 and stated how it became a building block of the current extensive bilateral legal framework between India and Russia.
“We have formed a very rich bilateral architecture, maintain active contacts with various levels, and annual summits. There are inter-governmental commissions and inter-parliamentary commissions,” Alipov said.
He further underscored how economic cooperation was able to achieve impressive results in 2022 as mutual trade broke a record of $30 billion between the two countries.
Space, scientific and technological cooperation continue to remain a priority of India and Russia. The two nations continue to see cooperation in the fields of quantum and biotechnology, artificial intelligence, fundamental and applied physics and medical science as well.