These matters figured in the meeting between external affairs minister S Jaishankar and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, the focus of whose visit to New Delhi was preparations for the annual India-Russia Summit to be held in the country later this year.
Lavrov said the two sides discussed military cooperation, including the expansion of the manufacturing of state-of-the-art Russian weapons in India under the “Make in India” and “Atmanirbhar Bharat” initiatives.(Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via Reuters )
India and Russia on Tuesday discussed ways to deepen military and strategic cooperation, including manufacturing of Russian military hardware in the country and the start of talks on creating a free trade area between India and the Eurasian Economic Union.
These matters figured in the meeting between external affairs minister S Jaishankar and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, the focus of whose visit to New Delhi was preparations for the annual India-Russia Summit to be held in the country later this year.
“We talked about the longstanding partnership in nuclear, space and defence sectors… We spoke of connectivity, including the International North-South Transport Corridor and the Chennai-Vladivostok Eastern Maritime Corridor,” Jaishankar told a joint news conference after the talks. Lavrov said the two sides discussed military cooperation, including the expansion of the manufacturing of state-of-the-art Russian weapons in India under the “Make in India” and “Atmanirbhar Bharat” initiatives. “In this strategically important area, Russia is a major foreign contractor for India. We are the only partner that indeed transfers to India cutting edge military technology,” he said. “Deepening of military cooperation serves national interests of both countries. At the same time, we respect the right of our Indian friends to diversify ties in this area,” he said.
Jaishankar said India’s “defence sector requirements in the past year were expeditiously addressed” by Russia – an apparent reference to the country’s emergency military needs amid the border standoff with China in Ladakh sector.
According to a recent estimate by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), Russia was the most-affected supplier as India’s arms imports fell 33% between 2011-15 and 2016-20.
Responding to a question on reported US pressure on India to prevent military-technical cooperation with Russia, Lavrov said: “We did not discuss these statements from the US, instead we confirmed that we are going to deepen our military cooperation.”
