Amid a perception of its inclination towards Pakistan, Russia has reiterated its commitment towards further strengthening its special “privileged relationship” with India.
In its new foreign policy vision document, Russia has said that it looks forward to enhancing bilateral ties with New Delhi in all areas, especially trade and economy and the focus will be on implementing long-term cooperation programmes with India.
Interestingly, Russia has mentioned Pakistan in the context of terrorism saying the terror groups aspire to create their own State and seek to consolidate their influence on a territory stretching from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean to Pakistan. In a carefully-worded document, Russia has, however, not made it clear whether it considers Pakistan a hotbed of terrorism or a victim.
President Vladimir Putin approved the ‘Foreign Policy Concept’ (FPC) of the Russian Government on November 30, 2016. The previous FPC was released in February 2013 in which Moscow had kept India as an important factor under ‘Regional Priority’ section and said “developing friendly relations with China and India is one of the priorities of Russian foreign policy.”
Russia has maintained the importance of India in its new plan as well. “Russia is committed to further strengthening its special privileged partnership with the Republic of India based on the convergence of foreign policy priorities, historical friendship and deep mutual trust, as well as enhancing mutually beneficial bilateral ties in all areas, primarily in trade and economy, with a focus on implementing long-term cooperation programmes approved by the two countries,” the latest Concept paper said.
“Russia believes that it is important to further develop the mechanism of effective and mutually beneficial foreign policy and day-to-day cooperation within the RIC (Russia-India-China) format,” it further added.
Despite trade between the two countries dropping by 7.8 per cent in 2015, India remains one of the major foreign trade partners of Russia. The defence relationship between India and Russia is very strong. Energy, chemical and engineering products also account for major Russian exports to India. But the focus for Russia now is to go beyond weapons purchase and look at improving trade and investments. President Putin during his visit to India in September had said that the two countries are resolved to overcome the negative trend, which, he pointed out, was associated with volatility on the global markets and in exchange rates.