New Delhi, February 02: India and Russia did a postmortem of the recently held London conference where reconciliation with the Taliban emerged as a key plan.
National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon on Monday held discussions with Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the security council of the Russian Federation, on a wide range of issues, including Afghanistan.
Though India and Russia are not involved in the plan to reconcile the Taliban or are troop-contributing countries, they have a stake in Afghanistan. It is understood that Russia is open to the idea of training Afghan police and willing to undertake reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan with the western funds.
Mr Patrushev also brought up the issue of drug production in Afghanistan and is understood to have told Mr Menon that the western countries also needed to address this issue and stop drug production. Neither countries are convinced about the reconciliation plan or with the effort to talk to the moderate Taliban.
The meeting also marked Mr Menon’s first bilateral meeting since taking over as NSA. Mr Patrushev also called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is understood to have told the Russian security chief that Mr Menon would be in frequent contact with the Russian side.
Ahead of the visit, the Russian embassy had said talks between Mr Patrushev and Mr Menon would also focus on the development of Russian-Indian cooperation in bilateral and multilateral formats. The two sides have also agreed to discuss position before going into international forums.
Apart from Afghanistan, the two sides also discussed civilian nuclear energy, cooperation between the intelligence agencies and space cooperation.
It has been no secret that Russia has not been thrilled with the choice of West Bengal as site for Russian nuclear reactors. Mr Patrushev after his meeting with Mr Menon said that the Indian side should consider the local political situation before allotting sites.
—–Agencies