Moscow-Delhi ties not anti-West: Russian official

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, APRIL 28. Relations with India have ``self-sufficient, intransient value'' for Russia and do not depend on its relations with other countries, a senior Russian official said.

In an interview to The Hindu the Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department of Information and Press, Mr. Alexander Yakovenko, said Russia's Foreign Minister, Mr. Igor Ivanov, will visit India from May 3 to 5 to prepare a bilateral summit later this year in Moscow and continue ``political dialogue of trust covering the entire range of bilateral, regional and international issues.''

The Prime Minister, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee, is scheduled to visit Moscow in Autumn for talks with the Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, in line with their agreement to hold bilateral summits every a year.

Mr. Yakovenko rejected suggestions that Russia's close ties with India were designed to snub the West. ``India is a great country, our long-time, historic partner. Therefore cooperation between Russia and India cannot in any way be regarded as an alternative to relations with any third countries.''

The Russian official described the Declaration on Strategic Partnership signed during Mr. Putin's visit to India last year as ``a practical basis for raising Russian-Indian relations to a qualitatively new level.'' He said, ``We are interested in the further deepening of interaction with India across the full spectrum of bilateral relations and international issues, which should help resolve global problems and promote the emergency of a fair world order.''

Mr. Yakovenko underlined the need for ``actively involving other major Asian states'' in efforts to strengthen global stability pursued jointly by Russia and India. Specifically, he called for closer trilateral cooperation between Russia, India and China.

``Russia, India and China bear markedly increased responsibility for the establishment of a lasting system of international security and stability in today's world. There is objective opportunity for certain coordination by the three nations of their efforts on key foreign policy issues.''

At the same time the Russian diplomat ruled out any formal triangular alliance among Russia, India and China.

``There is no question, of course, of any union or alliance. We merely speak of the situation as it is today. Russia, India and China have shared interests which we want to uphold jointly. Openness and transparency must, of course, be an essential condition for this interaction.''

Interestingly, the Russian Foreign Minister's visit to India will be preceded by his talks with China's Foreign Minister in Moscow over the weekend.

Mr. Yakovenko also recalled that scholars and government experts from the three nations will meet in Moscow later this year ``to try and jointly identify available objective prerequisites for cooperation among our countries.''

Speaking about bilateral relations, Mr. Yakovenko dwelt on defence cooperation as ``a major component of Russian- Indian strategic partnership.'' He said that dynamic defence ties were ``very productive'' and had ``good prospects.'' The diplomat noted that Indo-Russian defence cooperation today was not confined to arms purchases, but covered also joint projects, such as licence production of Russian weapons in India.

One of the main tasks before Russia and India is to step up economic and commercial cooperation, which was described by Mr. Yakovenko as ``not commensurate with the potential and the needs of the two countries.'' The Russian official called for expanding the range of commodities traded by Russia and India and for tapping new technologies.

``The share of high-technology products in our trade is extremely small and investment remains low,'' Mr. Yakovenko said. Another problem is more efficient utilisation of the remaining Indian debt and Rupee investments into priority projects.

The Russian diplomat reiterated Moscow's support for India's bid to join the UN Security Council. ``As a leading world nation, India is by all means among the strongest and worthiest candidates for permanent membership of the UN Security Council,'' he said.

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Section  : International
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