Indian & Russian foreign ministers meet in Moscow

Last updated on February 19th, 2021 at 06:40 am

On Wednesday, Indian foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla met with Russian deputy foreign minister Igor Morgulov in Moscow. The diplomats had excellent discussions over multiple bilateral issues including cooperation in multilateral organizations and arenas of mutual interest regionally as well as internationally. 

Shringla and Morgulov both prepared for the forcoming important meetings including Annual Bilateral Summit. 

Indian Embassy in Moscow tweeted about the meeting to have concluded into “excellent discussion on bilateral issues, cooperation in multilateral organizations as well as regional and global issues of mutual interest.”

Indian Embassy further tweeted, “Strong ties between #India & #Russia were further strengthened during the Foreign Office Consultations where all aspects of the multi-faceted relationship were discussed, along with other areas of mutual interest.” 

As part of his diplomatic visit to Moscow to carry out bilateral cooperative meetings, Shringla also met Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in his two day visit that is hoped to bring in momentum to India and Russia relationship over multiple issues. 

In a video posted on Twitter, Shringla said, “On the whole I think, we are on our way to see how we can add momentum to an already vibrant relationship, a very strong India-Russia special and privileged strategic partnership. Thank you. Spasibo vam (Thank you in Russian).” 

About the meeting, Shringla said, “We also spoke about the annual summit and he (Lavrov) said President Putin was looking forward to his visit to India at the invitation of Prime Minister Modi and that the visit would take place sometime on a date to be decided.” He added, “There are a number of other visits that we spoke about — there is a visit of the Deputy Prime Minister for the Inter-Governmental Commission with our Minister for External Affairs. We are looking at the visits of our army and naval chiefs. There are a large number of exchanges that are on the cards for the India-Russia relationship.” 

One of the key topics of discussion were of international issues including cooperation in the UN and UNSC in which India is a non-permanent member. Another region of discussion was Afghanistan where both countries have interests. Key topics were also handling Covid-19, vaccines and global response to the pandemic, and also how India and Russia can jointly work to handle the crisis. “There is a lot happening in the relationship. It is a very important relationship for both countries. I think we will see some developments reinforce the close and strategic partnership we both enjoy,” Shringla said.

Shringla extended Foreign Minister Jaishankar’s invitation of visiting India to Lavrov. Russian foreign minister has accepted the invitation and is looking forward to it in near future.