On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin met at Hyderabad House in New Delhi for the 21st Indo-Russian Summit.
PM Modi stated in his opening remarks that ties between the two countries have not changed, even during the Covid-19 outbreak. He went on to say that the two countries’ special and privileged strategic alliance was growing stronger, and that both sides remained in touch about the situation in Afghanistan and other concerns.
“In recent years, our two countries have encountered numerous problems. PM Modi stated, “We have not only cooperated, but we have also kept each other’s sensibilities in mind.”
“The globe has seen many fundamental changes in the previous few decades, and other sorts of geopolitical equations have formed,” the prime minister continued, “but India and Russia’s friendship has remained consistent.”
“The relation between India and Russia is truly a unique and reliable model of interstate friendship,” PM Modi said at the meeting.
“At the moment, mutual investments total over 38 billion dollars, with a little additional investment coming from Russia. We collaborate in the military and technical fields in a way that no other country does. “We collaborate on high-tech development and produce in India,” the Russian President stated.
India, Russia 2+2 Dialogue
On Monday, Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh met with his Russian colleague Sergey Shoygu as part of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation.
Separately, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. The two sides’ foreign and defence ministers then held a “2+2” dialogue.
Both parties sealed a deal for collaborative production of over six lakh AK-203 assault rifles at a manufacturing site in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi at the end of the meeting between the defence ministers, as well as a 10-year military cooperation pact.
The guns will cost roughly Rs 5,000 crore to produce for the Indian armed forces.
At the 20th meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military and Military-Technical Cooperation, the agreements were inked (IRIGC-M&MTC).
