In a bid to review the progress in bilateral and trade relations between the two nations, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid met Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin here on Monday.
Khurshid and the Indian delegates received a warm welcome from Rogozin.
Khurshid co-chaired the intersession meeting of the India-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission on trade, nuclear, scientific, economic, technological and cultural cooperation (IRIGC).
Giving details of the meeting, Khurshid said that the meeting was to focus on key issues of mutual interest with an objective to foster the bond of mutual cooperation between both the nations.
“We have a very important agenda. You know that we have important annual summits between our leadership and this is the joint commission intersession meeting. We will see how far we have come since we last laid out a clear path for over selves and fixed targets. We have issue in trade, investment, participation in common defence programmes, field of nuclear energy, field of energy in hydrocarbons and of course in the field of culture,” said Khurshid.
“Now we just need to talk about how far we have come and how much more we need to do, to prepare for the next summit,” he added.
Bilateral ties with Russia are a key pillar of India”s foreign policy. India sees Russia as a longstanding and time-tested friend that has played a significant role in its economic development and security.
Since the signing of the “Declaration on the India-Russia Strategic Partnership” in October 2000, India-Russia ties have acquired a qualitatively new character with enhanced levels of cooperation taking place in almost all areas of the bilateral relationship including political, security, trade and economy, defense, energy, science and technology and culture.
Under the Declaration of Strategic Partnership, several institutionalized dialogue mechanisms have been put in place that operate at the political and official levels, and ensure regular interaction and follow up on cooperation activities.
In the last couple of years, the two countries have decided to further elevate the strategic partnership to the level of a “Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership”.
———–ANI