Sandeep Dikshit
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, 5 December
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will host Russian President Vladimir Putin at his residence for one-on-one talks on Monday, which will mark the two countries’ exit from the straitjacket of arms and petroleum ties.
Putin, on his second foreign visit since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, and Prime Minister Modi will discuss Indian efforts in the Russian Far East, for which New Delhi has already earmarked a $1 billion line of credit, a first by India. for developed countries.
“We understand that the Russian Far East needs a lot of manpower. We want its greater engagement with the Far East,” sources said, adding that India would in turn invite the governors of the Far East states to the Vibrant Gujarat summit .
The largely untapped Russian Far East, with large reserves of gas, oil, timber, coal, diamonds and ceramics, is seeing a race between China, India and Japan to join hands with Russian companies. It is also a shortage of people and it is important that Moscow has not made the same proposals of manpower to China that it is next.
The initiative will coincide with two new sea routes on which the two countries want to partner. One is the newer and shorter shipping route to Europe through the Arctic Circle that will open up due to climate change and the other is the Vladivostok-Chennai shipping route that will transport most of the wood and coal from Russia.
Recalling “vivid memories” of Rakesh Sharma entering space in a Soviet rocket, sources said that moment will happen again in 2023 with the launch of India’s first space vehicle “Gaganyaan”. Indian astronauts have been training in Russia for over a year.
The summit and parallel meetings will consider possibilities of long-term cooperation in space in areas such as launch vehicle development. In nuclear power too, they will consider options to complete work on all six nuclear plants at Kadankulam or announce the next batch of six Indo-Russian nuclear power plants.
The two sides will also try to more closely coordinate their strategies on Afghanistan. The two countries jointly supported the Northern Coalition against the Taliban in 2001, but parted ways over the question of continued support to the Ghani regime. Sources said the ground has been prepared from two visits of Russian NSA Nikolai Petrushev, which took place just after the fall of Kabul following an agreement between PM Modi and Putin over the phone to maintain a permanent communication link on Afghanistan.
Arms however will form an integral part of the relationship. Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla recently said that without Russian spare parts and maintenance support, “our ships will not fly, our planes will not fly”.
Both countries in their progress are taking US signals to end defense ties. “We maintain strategic autonomy in defence. We are buying Rafale from France, Apache from America and S-400 from Russia. ,
The summit, to be held two years later, will overlap with the India-Russia 2+2 before his foreign and defense ministers. Sources said it was a “natural fit” in India-Russia relations. “There is a lot of political dialogue and defense issues between India and Russia and there are many cross cutting issues. This forum is appropriate,” he said while denying India-Russia that 2+2 is being organized only to balance Indo-US 2+2.