President Putin’s Visit Will Provide Fresh Impetus to Excellent Bilateral Relations between Two Nations

President of the Russian Federation to Visit India for the 15th Annual India-Russia Summit on 10-11 December

The President of the Russian Federation, H.E. Mr. Vladimir V. Putin, will pay an official visit to India on 10-11 December, 2014, for the 15th Annual India-Russia Summit. The Official Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Shri Syed Akbaruddin along with Shri Ajay Bisaria, Joint Secretary (Eurasia) told media persons in a media briefing in New Delhi today that Mr. Vladimir Putin will be accompanied by a high level official and business delegation. During the visit, President Putin will hold detailed talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, both in the restricted and delegation format. He will call on the President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee who will host a Banquet in honour of the dignitary. The two leaders are also expected to jointly interact with Chief Executive Officers of major companies from both the countries. President Putin’s visit is a landmark event and is expected to provide a fresh impetus to the existing excellent bilateral relations between our two countries. A dominant theme of this Summit will be the spelling out by the two leaders of a joint vision of our relationship for the next decade. It will provide a roadmap for enhancing the partnership between our two countries to qualitatively new levels. It will have a strong focus on redefining the economic partnership between our countries. Several documents are under preparation for signing at the Summit, in the fields of defence, nuclear energy, customs, banking and energy. The India-Russia Annual Summit process was initiated under President Putin’s leadership during his visit to India in October, 2000. It has proved a highly effective mechanism for both countries to take high-level stock of India-Russia relations and to impart direction and impetus to them. The last Summit was held in Moscow during the visit of former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to Russia in October, 2013. The two countries enjoy today what we call a special and strategic partnership. President Putin is known as a close friend of India and an architect of this strategic partnership. This has been strengthened considerably over the last 14 years in important and diverse areas. In fact, Annual Summits are at the apex of an elaborate multi-layered mechanism or machinery for bilateral interaction, one of the largest that we have with any country in the world. The other key institutional mechanism for high-level dialogue between the two countries are an Intergovernmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation, co-chaired by the two Defence Ministers; and an Intergovernmental Commission on trade, economic, scientific, technological and cultural cooperation which our External Affairs Minister co-chairs with Deputy Prime Minister Rogozin. We also have the India-Russia Trade & Investment Forum which is co-chaired by our Commerce & Industry Minister and the Russian Minister for economic development. This is a very significant visit. It will be the first Annual Summit meeting between the President Putin and Prime Minister Modi. The two leaders have already met twice this year. They first met on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Brazil in July for what was a very warm and friendly conversation. Prime Minister Modi mentioned at that meeting that every child in India knows that our closest friend is Russia. They met for the second time in Australia for the G20 Summit on November 15-16. The Prime Minister also met with the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Myanmar on November 13th. Russia is a long-standing and a steadfast partner for India. We attach the greatest importance to our bilateral relations. Our Prime Minister considers our relation with Russia a major foreign policy priority for the country. He has warm recollections of his three visits to Russia as Chief Minister to Gujarat and has been very happy at his interactions with President Putin. We’ve had intense exchanges with this key partner ever since the new government took office India. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Rogozin visited New Delhi in June and in November this year. During his last visit Deputy Prime Minister Rogozin co-chaired the 20th Session of the Intergovernmental Commission along with our External Affairs Minister Smt. Sushma Swaraj. Our External Affairs Minister has also met her Russian Counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Dushanbe. The Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev visited New Delhi last week for a meeting with our National Security advisor. Russia is a significant partner for India in strategic sectors like defence, nuclear security and science, including space. Russia is also our primary defence partner and will remain so for decades. Bilateral economic, commercial and investment ties between India and Russia have been growing but are way below potential. Bilateral trade in 2013 stood at about US $ 10 billion and is projected to stay at the same level in 2014. We are making strenuous efforts to create conducive conditions for strengthening our economic linkages through trade & investment. We are keenly interested in participating in more hydrocarbon projects in Russia. There has also been a substantial increase in tourist inflows between the two countries in recent years. The recently announced e-visa facility has also been extended to Russian nationals and this expected to boost tourist arrivals further. Cultural exchange is an important component of India-Russia relations. The "Festival of Russian Culture” is being celebrated in India this year and the "Year of Indian Culture” will be celebrated in Russia next year. Russia is also amongst our most important interlocutors on regional, international and multilateral issues. Our two countries work closely together in international fora, at the United Nations and other groupings such as the G20, BRICS, EAS and Russia-India-China (RIC). The two leaders can be expected to exchange views on the developments in the regions and developing cooperation in forums where we are members. We have an identity or similarity of views with Russia on important global issues including on threats from terrorism, particularly in our shared neighbourhood, on multi-polarity as an important element in the global architecture and the need to defuse the cold war-like tensions that are increasingly manifesting themselves in global relations. India has said clearly that it cannot be party to any sanctions against Russia.