Even though India and Russia are celebrating 70th anniversary of their diplomatic relationship, the two countries are yet to explore the maximum potential of their relationship, experts from the two countries say.
The experts suggest that in order to make full use of the collaboration potential, ties between Russia and India should be taken to a qualitatively new level which includes joint production of military products and partnering projects in third countries.
In their report called ‘New Horizon of privileged partnership’ India-Russia experts also suggested that it is time for Russia to actively participate in India’s Make in India programme in defence manufacturing, with more technology transfers, as that would consolidate Russia’s dominant position as India’s defence partner. On the vital issue of terrorism and religious extremism, the report said that the two countries should give more visible mutual support to each other.
The report was brought out by The Vivekanand Foundation and Russian International Affairs Council with the support of Ministry of External Affairs. It was released recently by Indian ambassador in Moscow, Pankaj Saran.
While saying that India is Russia’s long-standing and reliable partner, the report underlined that the current model of ties has largely exhausted itself, and cooperation now should be taken to a qualitatively new level. It added that giving a new impetus to Moscow - New Delhi relations would allow Russia to diversify its efforts in Asia.
“It is necessary for India and Russia to prevent third countries from exerting significant influence on their bilateral ties…A whole series of systemic barriers that currently impede bilateral relations must be overcome. These barriers include: an imperfect legal framework; tariff and non-tariff trade limitations that still exist between the two countries; the lack of up-to-date information on political processes in both countries; the low level of business contacts; and the outdated images of both Russia and India their citizens have,” the report said.
On the Foreign Policy front the experts wrote in the report that it is important to further expand Russia-India engagement on the international arena and to strengthen influential international groups such as the SCO and BRICS.
It added that Russia should continue to actively support India’s claim for greater participation in international affairs, particularly in reforming the United Nations, expanding the number of permanent members in the Security Council and membership of technology-related international regimes of which Russia is a member. There were suggestions that India and Russia should profitably cooperate with each other in economic projects in third countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri lanka, and Central Asia.
Talking about the trade, economy and military cooperation, the report said it is necessary to substantially modernize the contractual and legal basis of cooperation and remove administrative barriers hindering the movement of capital, services and labour.
“It is important to secure and consolidate new trends in the development of military-technical cooperation and, first and foremost, to transition from the Rs seller-buyer’ model to large-scale joint breakthrough projects such as Fifth Generation Fighters Aircraft (FGFA) and BrahMos missiles. These weapons could both significantly enhance the defence potential of both countries and have excellent export prospects,” the report said.
Experts felt that that priority attention should be paid to academic mobility, educational exchanges, creating joint masters programmes, and even setting up joint universities and the issue of the mutual recognition of diplomas and academic degrees of the two countries should be explored.