Putin praises ‘privileged partnership’ with India

The agreements on cooperation in the field of helicopter engineering, and a Memorandum of Understanding on technical cooperation in the railway sector.

The India Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi said that Russia was an reliable friend and invited Russian companies to invest in India in the manufacturing sector.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin at the 16th Annual India-Russia Summit, at the Kremlin in Moscow on December 24, 2015. The USSR, and its successor state Russian Federation, have traditionally been the major supplier of defence equipment to India. Putin conveyed Russia’s “strong support” to India’s bid for permanent membership of the UN Security Council, saying it is a “deserving and strong candidate that can bring an independent and responsible approach” within the world body.

Russian Federation launched the first nuclear unit at India’s Kudankulam power station in June a year ago and would complete building another one in “a matter of a few weeks”, Putin said. “India has now been successful in convincing the world that it is the demand of time that all forces which believe in humanism should join hands to root out terrorism”, he said.

He recalled that Moscow had “strongly supported India’s accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and that the two countries were actively cooperating within the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), where India will take the rotating presidency in February 2016”.

Though some were already in the pipeline, like the 12 nuclear reactors that Russia is to construct in India, others like the deal to make the Russian multi-tasking Kamov 226 helicopters in this country, breaks new ground in the relationship.

Mr Putin hosted Mr Modi for a tete-e-tete at the Kremlin followed by a private dinner during which the two touched upon issues of mutual interests.

Modi on Friday night reached Delhi from Lahore after his surprise visit to greet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on his birthday. No doubt, India has moved closer to the United States and Israel since the 1990s and has even signed extensive defence agreements with them, in some ways decreasing dependence on Russian Federation.

The working president of National Conference also expressed the hope that the two Prime Ministers will address the lack of consistency and knee jerk reactions of the past.

Modi also took a tour of Russia’s National Crisis Management Centre and took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at Moscow’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier before the Thursday official talks.