Russia is keen to have much deeper and closer ties with India, a gesture that New Delhi is also giving a positive response to. In a telephonic talk with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed Moscow’s strong desire to take the ties between both the nations to a dizzy height. Putin had called PM Modi to greet him on his birthday on 17 September.
According to sources, both the leaders turned the telephonic conversation, which was for exchanging pleasantries, into a useful dialogue setting the higher trajectory of ties between both New Delhi and Moscow. Sources told The Daily Guardian, both the leaders set the stage for more and more diplomatic and defence level engagements and exchanges between their countries in future obviously keeping in view growing influence of China in oceanic regions as well as along the LAC.
With China choosing to be on a collision course with India on one pretext or the other, India’s much stronger ties with major powers such as Russia will go a long way in reining in the Dragon. This perception is dominating the diplomatic circles in New Delhi, which are quite happy and satisfied with the way India and Russia are taking their relations for- ward. PM Modi is himself understood to be quite satisfied with the role of Russia in arranging and facilitating a “fruitful” meeting between External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and China’s foreign minister Wang Yi in Moscow on 10 September.
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov had helped both the foreign ministers to meet to resolve the problems on the LAC. Even in the meeting of the NSAs of BRICS on Thursday, Russia backed India’s views while finalising the draft resolution that incorporated a strong message for Beijing in terms of respecting sovereignty of other countries and abiding by the international laws.
Sources said NSA Ajit Doval’s points were strongly backed by his Russian counterpart in the meeting, and that was a clear message to Chinese NSA Yang Jiechi. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to Russia recently brought the two nations much closer than before in terms of strategic ties.
Sources said that EAM S. Jaishankar and Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla remained active throughout the day coordinating telephonic talks between PM Modi and other leaders of the world such as Putin on Thursday. Heads of other countries also greeted PM Modi over the phone on his birthday.
PM Modi’s talk with Putin is being attached more importance from China’s perspective. India has been diplomatically lobbying with Russia over the last few months as part of its mission to counter expansionist China. “Jaishankar had also briefed PM Modi on Russia’s role paving the way for a meeting between foreign ministers of India and China in Moscow,” said sources.