Indian Council of World Affairs

Esteemed Ms Vijay Thakur Singh and Mr Andrey Kortunov,

Dear friends,

I’m privileged to be here amongst you and address the annual international conference between RIAC and ICWA, which incidentally or not coincided with the Anniversary of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between Russia and India signed 30 years ago in 1993. This fundamental document formulated the guidelines on which our relationship is founded. Among them are the principles of mutual respect, non-interference in domestic affairs, commitment to mutually beneficial cooperation and the central role of the UN and international law. This explains a trusted and enduring nature of our strategic partnership, the proximity of our approaches to global issues and a common desire for a just and equal international world order.

The Ukrainian conflict is not a land-grabbing attempt by Russia to restore the empire as is being presented. It is the consequence of the consistent violation of the same universal principles enshrined in Russia-India treaty and the unwillingness of the dominant world centres to embrace democracy in international relations. It’s not a coincidence that against this backdrop the Indian position defending its legitimate national interests and primacy of sovereign decisions gets criticized.

Russia and India share a ramified network of platforms and groupings that help promote the prospective global agenda for the benefit of the broader international community. Our constructive interaction at the UN with India as a member of the Security Council in 2021-2022 was quite supportive to ensure genuine implementation of principles of the UN Charter without double standards. We stood likeminded to prevent the misuse of the global organization for vested purposes. India has taken a neutral stance as regards the efforts to exclude Russia from multilateral institutions, including OPCW, BWC, FATF, UNESCO. Our and India’s priority is to achieve genuine democracy in the global governance with an enhanced role of developing states of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Russia supports India's commitment to become a permanent member of the UNSC.

We see the current Indian presidencies in the G20 and the SCO as an opportunity to efficiently promote the agenda of these crucial associations. We appreciate the ideas of consensus-based response to the challenges with regard to emerging energy and food crises as well as to sustainable development needs, especially in the Global South. We are working very closely on major topics such as supply chains resilience, infrastructure financing, digital transformation, promotion of start-ups architecture, etc., which are supposed to significantly contribute to restore the global economy. Together, we also realize that in order to succeed, there should not be any place to artificial alienation lines, which create mistrust and undermine stability.

Consecutive G20 chairmanships of India, South Africa and Brazil would certainly offer more space for traditional coordination within BRICS on vital topics. As an important and comprehensive tool to support global transformation towards multipolarity, BRICS is gaining momentum. There’s a growing interest among other dynamic developing nations to join the “Big Five”, which needs to be duly accomodated.

The integration process has accelerated in the Eurasian space, where the SCO occupied a unique place as a gravitational platform. Continuous expansion of the organization speaks for itself. So as the prospects of intensified cooperation in security, energy, investments, infrastructure logistics as well as people-to-people ties. At the same time, we are of a strong belief that the Eurasian stability would greatly benefit from closer interaction between the three major powers in Asia – Russia, India and China.

Bilaterally, we have done a great job building an independent payment system, expanding the use of national currencies in mutual settlements that ultimately ensured a record high turnover exceeding USD 30 bn. Along with the flagship project of Kudankulam NPP, Russia has become the largest oil supplier to India, significantly contributing to India’s energy security. We are purposefully developing alternative transport routes, primarily the North-South ITC, attracting partners to largescale energy and infrastructure projects on the development of the Russian Far East, Siberia and the Northern Sea Route. A strong push has been given to business and interregional contacts. Customs cooperation and fin-tech ties have been deepening. There are immense prospects in such sectors as airport, sea and river infrastructure, steel production, petrochemistry, start-ups, aircraft and shipbuilding, agriculture, advanced technologies in urban development, digitalization. With Western companies leaving Russia, broad opportunities have opened up for Indian business, many of which are already underway. The speedy implementation of an FTA between the EAEU and India and the formation of efficiently working bilateral commercial and industrial associations will facilitate the qualitative restructuring and further diversification of the trade, economic and investment ties.

The level of Russian-Indian defence cooperation remains unprecedented. Many are of the opinion that the major reason for that is India’s heavy dependency on the Russian equipment. I would argue that is primarily because Russia, unlike others, does not condition such cooperation to political demands and offers the maximum transfer of advanced technologies, to a much fuller extent than others. The “BrahMos” and AK-203 assault rifles joint ventures, licensed production in India of T-90 tanks, Su-30MKI fighters as well as cooperation on other armaments and components are the telltale examples and the best testament of Russia’s contribution to the “Make in India” and “Self-reliant India” programs.

Dear friends! Cradled in proud history, the Russian-Indian strategic partnership remains an integral part to securing the fundamental interests of the peoples of our two friendly nations. Both our countries have established multiple strategic arrangements with many partners. However, ours is unique because of its proven reliability. We don’t need to explain to each other and the rest that yesterday it was not possible for some reason and one can easily assume tomorrow may not be possible for another. I sincerely hope that the frank and open discussion today will become yet another important step towards strengthening the mutual trust between us we so much cherish.

Thank you!

*****