Vladivostok: India and Russia are against ‘outside influence’ in the internal matters of any nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Wednesday after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin here. They also discussed ways to bolster cooperation in trade and investment, oil and gas, nuclear energy, defence, space and maritime connectivity.
Narendra Modi, who arrived in Russia on a two-day visit during which he will also attend the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF), is the first Indian Prime Minister to visit to the Russian Far East Region.
“We both are against outside influence in the internal matters of any nation,” Narendra Modi said in a joint press meet with President Putin after their talks. His remarks came against the backdrop of tension between India and Pakistan after New Delhi revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.
Russia has backed India’s move on Jammu and Kashmir. It has said that the changes in the status are within the framework of the Indian Constitution.
The two leaders held the delegation-level talks at the India-Russia 20th Annual Summit after a two-hour tete-a-tete on board a ship, aimed at strengthening the special and privileged relationship between the two sides.
Modi told reporters that a proposal has been made to have a full fledged maritime route between Chennai and Vladivostok. A Memorandum of Intent was signed between India and Russia on the development of maritime communications between Chennai and Vladivostok.
“Due to the increasing localisation of nuclear plants being formed with the cooperation of Russia in India, we are also developing a true partnership in this field,” Modi said. “The India-Russia friendship is not restricted to their respective capital cities. We have put people at the core of this relationship,” the Prime Minister added.
The two sides also signed 15 agreements/MoUs in areas such as defence, air, and maritime connectivity, energy, natural gas, petroleum and trade.
“The friendship and support between both the countries is growing with full speed. Our special and privileged strategic partnership has not only benefitted our countries but also it has been used for the development of the people,” Narendra Modi pointed out.
“Both of us have taken our relationship to a new level based on cooperation and support which has resulted in not only quantitative changes but qualitative changes as well,” Modi added.
On his part, Putin said India is one of the key partners of Russia and the relationship between the two states is of ‘strategic and special privileged nature’.
“We placed our priorities on trade and investment cooperation last year. Our bilateral trade grew by almost 17 per cent and mounted to USD 11 billion. There is every condition that it will grow further up,” Putin told reporters. He said it common goal of the two sides to reach an agreement to establish a free trade area between India and the Eurasian economic union.
Putin also informed that Russia is a reliable source of energy supplier to India. “Last year we have shipped 3.3 million tonne of oil to India, almost 550 thousand tons of oil products and 4.5 million tonne of coal,” Putin stated.
The Russian President further informed that the flagship joint project is the cooperation in the ‘Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant’. “The first two units are already operational, the work for the third and fourth unit is going as per schedule,” he said.
Underlining the cooperation between India and Russia in technical and military areas, Putin said, “We are successfully implementing our bilateral programme on military and technical cooperation up to 2020. We are working to update it to extend to another 10 years.”
PTI