MBA Aspirants are expected to know the happenings around globe which might affect Indian foreign policy, thus impacting all of us. Today, you will read on: Impact of PM’s Russia visit
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had been quite busy the past few days, with visits to neighbouring countries to strengthen ties and enhance relations between India and its potential allies.
On October 20, 2013, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to increase cooperation in defence, nuclear energy, science and technology, and trade and investment.
Before going into the details of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Moscow, it is important to understand the current state of Indo-Russian relations. India and Russia’s strategic partnership is built on six components – politics, defence, space, anti-terrorism cooperation, economic growth, and civil nuclear energy.
In fact, both the countries had set a target of attaining Rp 1,229 billion (US$20 billion) in bilateral trade by 2015. To achieve this target, both the countries are looking into developing a free trade agreement.
Also, India is the second largest market for Russia’s defence industry, with more than 70% of the Indian military hardware coming from Russia.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent visit to Moscow went smoothly, and both the countries agreed to boost cooperation in security, energy, trade and defence sectors. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had planned to sign a deal with Russia to set up two nuclear plants in Kudankulam, Tamil Nadu, but the deal did not go through.
However, this does not mean that the talks pertaining to the deal were unsuccessful; the leaders of both the countries agreed to look into this issue in the near future.
Both the countries also agreed to enhance cooperation to fight terrorism on an international scale. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Vladimir Putin agreed that any act of terror and sheltering, training and financing of terrorists will not be tolerated.
After the meeting, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated clearly that “no country has closer relations with India and no country inspires more admiration, trust and confidence among the people of India than Russia”.
It is clear from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s words that India and Russia have a lot in common and there is scope for greater friendship and camaraderie between the two nations.
To boost cooperation between educational institutes of both the countries, both the leaders agreed to expedite the finalisation of intergovernmental documents on recognition of academic degrees and education documents in various fields of study.
To boost tourism between Russia and India, both the leaders decided to hold regular Russian cultural festivals in India and Indian cultural festivals in Russia. This way, people of one nation will appreciate the cultures of the other nation and as a result, there could be a possibility of growth in the tourism industry.
Both the leaders agreed that the importance of the Asia Pacific region in international affairs is growing, and hence, there is a need for greater regional cooperation and integration. Russia commended India’s participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation as an observer state and reiterated its support for India’s bid for membership in the entity.
President Vladimir Putin believes that it is important for China, India, and Russia to strengthen political interactions for the growth of the region and this issue will be discussed further in the meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the three countries in New Delhi in November 2013.
So, overall, the meeting between the leaders of India and Russia was fruitful. Not only has there been greater level of understanding between the two nations but there have been discussions to take Indo-Russian relations to greater heights.
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