Guwahati: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar landed in Moscow on Monday as part of his two-day trip to Russia.
During his visit, Jaishankar will meet with Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia in order to continue their ongoing high-level conversation.
Talks between the two parties are anticipated to cover a range of bilateral issues as well as an exchange of opinions on key regional and global developments during the EAM’s visit.
The last time Jaishankar travelled to Russia was in July 2021. The Russian Foreign Minister then paid a visit to New Delhi in April 2022.
Prior to EAM’s arrival, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that India and Russia support the active creation of a more equitable and just polycentric world order.
“Russia and India stand for the active formation of a more just and equal polycentric world order, and proceed from the inadmissibility of promoting the imperialist diktat on the global arena,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, over the past ten years, effective interaction mechanisms have been established between the two nations, and bilateral relations between the two bear the characteristics of a special and privileged strategic partnership.
“The key areas of cooperation with India are the further intensification of the political dialogue in a bilateral format and on international platforms, promotion of economic, financial, energy, military-technical, humanitarian, scientific and technical cooperation,” the Russian statement read.
Lavrov and Jaishankar will discuss how to advance joint work in the important areas and share notes on the calendar of upcoming meetings, according to the Russian foreign ministry.
“The talks will focus on the trade and investments, transport and logistics, the use of national currencies in mutual settlements, as well as promising projects in the energy sector, especially in the Arctic shelf and the Russian Far East,” the ministry said.
It said there would be an exchange of assessments on the current international issues with an emphasis on interaction within the UN, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Group of Twenty (G20) and RIC (Russia, India, China).
“The Ministers will also discuss India’s presidency in the SCO, efforts to fight terrorism, as well as a number of the regional issues, including the formation of a security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region, the situation around the Iranian nuclear problem, state of affairs in Afghanistan, Syria, and Ukraine,” the Russian foreign ministry said.
Since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine earlier this year, India’s bilateral relations with Russia have come under scrutiny from the West due to an increase in oil imports from Moscow, which is suffering from sanctions. The more than eight-month-long war in Ukraine has had a substantial impact on world food security and caused a sharp rise in petroleum prices.
Notably, India has maintained its neutral stance throughout the conflict and has not denounced Russia. New Delhi has repeatedly urged an end to violence and promoted peace and diplomacy on several UN platforms.