Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks on the prospects of the Russian-Indian partnership
(From the Minister's speech at the meeting with MGIMO students and teaching staff on the occasion of the beginning of the academic year on September 1, 2022)
India has always been one of our key priorities. Let me remind you that our relations with India are now characterized as the special and privileged strategic partnership. Many years ago we agreed to call it a strategic partnership. Then our Indian friends said that this was not enough, that they had strategic partnerships with many countries, so let's call it a privileged strategic partnership. But even this was not enough. At the proposal of the Indian friends, it is now called the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership.
We have close cooperation with India in the energy sector. Russian companies work in India, Indian companies work with us in Siberia and the Far East. Close and especially confidential military-technical cooperation, including the production of appropriate modern weapons on the Indian territory. We have diversified ties in the agricultural sector, in processes that we are now trying to develop together in the so-called "green transition". The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant is one of the flagships of our strategic partnership. Substantive negotiations are now underway to prepare a site for another nuclear power plant, which will also include several units. One cannot list everything.
It is indeed a relationship that is developing robustly and rests on a solid foundation of friendship since India's struggle for independence. Now the West is saying that it must force the entire world to stop cooperating with Russia, to impose sanctions. They “rush about” with this and proudly declare in public that they demanded that such-and-such countries should impose sanctions against Russia, otherwise they will face consequences. From the perspective of not even diplomacy, but common sense, how can they make such arrogant public statements in relation to such countries as India, China, Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia? When these states being publicly threatened, does no one understand that such civilizations have self-esteem? It is simply insulting to hear such demands. Even if those statements would have been made "behind closed doors", still this situation lack of any decorum. When great states are told that they must do something on orders from somewhere across the ocean, I can only imagine what long-term damage this causes to relations with those who are engaged in such dictate.
India does not want to join the sanctions. Indian leaders, including my colleague, Dr S.Jaishankar, the External Affairs Minister, have publicly rejected any attempts to involve them in restrictions on the Russian energy purchases. They have made it clear that they will follow their own interests. More recently, an article by an Indian political scientist and economist has appeared (the article is available here — https://tinyurl.com/y4kzkksf) that explains why India will not join the US sanctions. He explains this not only by economic interest and calculation, but also by the common history of Russia and India, the deep respect that exists in India for the role that our country played in ensuring India’s independence and in developing its independent economy. We are satisfied with the Russian-Indian relations. President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met in 2021. They will also have the opportunity to communicate during upcoming events. The SCO Summit will take place this month. I will definitely communicate with my colleague Dr S.Jaishankar in the near future, including at the UN General Assembly.
Read the full speech of the Russian Minister here — https://mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/1828196/
