Congress lashes out at PM Modi for unscheduled Pak visit

While opening a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia and India had been “consistently and confidently developing the privileged strategic partnership”.

With regard to nuclear energy, Modi said the pace of cooperation is increasing and progress is being made on 12 Russian reactors at two sites in India.

The summit started on Thursday with a private dinner hosted by Putin in the Kremlin following which Russian Federation and India inked 15 agreements.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “surprise” visit to Pakistan capping his two-nation tour of Russian Federation and Afghanistan dramatically underscores the government’s newfound commitment to normalising relations with Pakistan – to the extent sections of the establishment in Islamabad will allow such relations to normalise. “Following our last Summit, India has created a special notified zone to facilitate direct trade between the world’s largest uncut diamond exporter, Russia, and India, which processes 90 per cent of the world’s uncut diamond”, he said. India is also involved in design and production of Russia’s new T-50 stealth fighter, but has not yet committed to the $10 billion deal. In the presence of President Putin, Modi stressed that India wants more co-operation from Russian Federation in different sectors, although the two countries have been co-operating in the worldwide and political arenas more actively for years. The agenda of the meeting is not known but the two leaders are expected to discuss major issues which have rocked ties between the two countries. The new plants will be in sync with broad principles of “Make in India” initiative.

India’s ONGC is in talks to increase its stake in the Vankor oilfield in Siberia owned by Russia’s top oil producer Rosneft, in line with one of the documents signed in the presence of Putin and Modi.

The two then went to Sharif’s ancestral home, the Raiwind Palace, where they held talks for almost an hour. India has no choice but to vigorously pursue its own enlightened interests, without falling into any camp. The NSAs meeting was followed by the recent visit of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to Pakistan to take part in the Heart of Asia conference on Afghanistan, during which she also had a bilateral meeting with Pakistani leadership, after which the two countries had announced their decision to resume their peace dialogue.

Modi stated Russian Federation had all the time stood as “energy” beside India and this was a relationship of friendship.

“Together with President Putin we have a great level of mutual understanding of global issues, ” said Modi.

Referring to Vajpayee’s poem “Hum Jung Na Hone Denge” (We won’t let war happen), Kulkarni said, “Atalji must be a very happy man with Modi visiting Pakistan on his birthday”.