New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday said Russia views India as a great power, a friendly nation and a time-tested friend, and added that ties between both countries have been developing and are now looking into the future.
In his remarks ahead of the bilateral summit with PM Narendra Modi here, President Putin said the two sides are cooperating and investing in very important matters, including in the energy sector, and high tech, and space.
He also mentioned Afghanistan, and said: “Naturally, we are concerned about everything that has to do with terrorism. I mean, the fight against terrorism, also the fight against drug trafficking and organised crime. And with that regard, we are naturally concerned about the developments of the situation in Afghanistan.”
“We perceive India as a great power, a friendly nation and a time tested friend. Relations between our countries have been developing and are now looking into the future,” Putin said.
On trade, he said that there was a decline in trade turnover by more than 17% last year, and in the first nine months of this year there was growth by more than 38%. “We have every opportunity to reach the levels of trade we have targeted, and the same applies to investments.”
He said the programmes that were discussed today “will be fully implemented, including the training of Indian spacemen” in Russia on Gaganyan,
“We also cooperate greatly in military and technical sphere like no other country. By that I mean that we develop high technologies together as well as produce in India,” he added.
Putin also said the “two sides have a common important agenda that is of interest to India and Russia, and by that I mean environmental cooperation”.
“We think about the green agenda and the development of our economies, but naturally we proceed from the reality and the needs of our economies that is to consistently increase the level of life for our citizens,” he said.
Putin said the two sides continue to cooperate jointly on the global agenda and concurred with what PM Modi said, adding “our positions are quite similar or coincide”.
He said that with the 2+2 dialogue held today, “we will continue to develop our cooperation in the international agenda and in the military sphere”. (UNI)
