07 December 2021
India and Russia finalized a total of 28 agreements on the sidelines of a summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
This comes on a backdrop of 2+2 dialogue between the defence and foreign ministers of both the countries respectively.
This summit is the first in-person meeting between the two leaders since they met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in 2019 in Brasilia. The Russian President had skipped both the G20 and COP26 summits this year.
Following major deals were signed -
1. A defence deal to manufacture more than 6,00,000 AK-203 rifles worth more than ₹5,000 crore for the Indian Army.
2. The military-technical cooperation between two countries was extended for another 10 years.
3. Reserve Bank of India and the Bank of Russia also signed a pact to respond effectively to cyberattacks.
What the leaders said?
• President Vladimir Putin described India as a “great power, a friendly nation and a time-tested friend."
• PM Narendra Modi said there is no change in the pace of relations between India and Russia despite the covid-19 pandemic" and that the “Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership" between the two was getting stronger.
Briefing reporters on the talks between the two leaders, foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said the 28 pacts spanned military, trade, energy and geological exploration.
India’s concerns over China and Russia’s ties with Beijing were also discussed during the first ever India-Russia foreign and defence ministers’ meeting that preceded the Modi-Putin summit.