Dear ladies and gentlemen,
We held meaningful and useful talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of India in a traditionally friendly and frank manner With.Jaishankar. Our countries are united by historical ties characterized by mutual respect, self-sufficiency, and resistance to fluctuations in the geopolitical conjuncture.
We were united in the fact that strengthening the Russian-Indian particularly privileged strategic partnership meets the fundamental interests of our peoples, contributes to the maintenance of international and regional security and stability. We noted with satisfaction the rhythmic, regular, intensive nature of our political dialogue, at the highest level and through the Ministries of Foreign Affairs.
We welcomed the positive dynamics of bilateral trade. By September 2022, compared to the same period last year, the trade turnover increased by 133%, almost reaching the level of 17 billion US dollars. We are confident that the goal set by the leaders of Russia and India to bring the annual trade turnover to $30 billion will soon be achieved.
We agreed that the intergovernmental Russian-Indian Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation plays a key role in trade, economic, investment cooperation, cooperation in logistics, transport, and high technologies. Today, Mr. S. Jaishankar held a meeting with his colleague, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Minister of Industry and Trade D.V.Manturov (they are co–chairs in this Commission). According to the Indian Foreign Minister, the dialogue was useful and informative.
We discussed in detail the status and prospects of the ongoing negotiations on the launch of the international transport corridor “North-South” and a number of other areas related to logistics in our common region.
They noted good prospects for cooperation in the energy sector, including an increase in exports of hydrocarbons from Russia to the Indian market and mutual participation in projects for their production, including in the Far East and on the Arctic shelf of the Russian Federation. They stated effective cooperation in the field of “peaceful atom”, the successful construction of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant. We discussed further steps in this direction, the provision of a new site for the construction of a Russian-designed nuclear power plant, which will allow India to provide clean and safe energy in the future.
We examined in detail the state and prospects of military-technical cooperation, joint production of modern types of weapons. We attach great importance to space exploration in such areas as satellite navigation, space science, and manned programs.
They stressed the importance of active negotiations on the conclusion of an agreement on a free trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Union and India.
We exchanged high assessments of the interaction of our countries on the world stage, including within the framework of the UN, BRICS, SCO, the Group of Twenty, as well as on other multilateral platforms.
We paid great attention to the situation in Afghanistan, the Middle East region and North Africa.
For their part, they confirmed the high assessment of the position of Indian friends on the situation in Ukraine and around it. S. Jaishankar was informed about the course of a special military operation aimed at achieving the tasks that were set by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his speech on February 24 this year.
We discussed the situation that has developed around the attempts of Western colleagues under the pretext of Ukrainian events to strengthen their dominant role in world affairs and prevent the democratization of international relations.
I believe that the talks were useful and confirmed the mutual intention to strengthen cooperation in all areas. We will continue to maintain contacts, including during the upcoming multilateral events through ASEAN and the Group of Twenty.
Question: The situation in Afghanistan continues to cause concern for both India and Russia. Based on your discussions today, how do you see further cooperation between Moscow and New Delhi on the Afghan issue?
A regular meeting of the Moscow format of consultations on Afghanistan is scheduled for mid-November this year. It became known that the new Afghan authorities were not invited to this meeting, although the Taliban took part in the Moscow-format meeting in 2021. How could you comment on this? What is the reason for this decision?
S.V. Lavrov: As already noted in our opening remarks, we discussed in detail the situation in Afghanistan and the tasks that the international community faces to help the Afghan people stabilize the situation and achieve national consensus on how to continue living in their country.
We are working with the Taliban through our line. Indian friends are also taking the necessary steps in this direction. We have not yet achieved the desired result and have not seen that the colleagues who represent power in Kabul are moving fast enough in those areas that have been declared as their obligations to their people. I am referring to the need to consolidate the ethno-political unity of the Afghan people and ensure the inclusive nature of the government. We continue this work, one of the stages of which will be the next meeting of the Moscow format next week. Indian partners, as well as all other participants of previous events of this kind, will be represented at it.
We maintain regular contact with representatives of the Taliban, who will be privy to what the participants of the Moscow format meeting will do. We have no secrets from the Afghan side. We will thoroughly probe both the Taliban and other political forces that exist there.
Question: Can you tell us what the priorities of the SCO development are at the moment (in your opinion)? Is this the security sphere or the development of economic cooperation?
Can you tell us how the work on the expansion of BRICS is progressing? Are there any deadlines or dates for the entry of new countries into it, in particular Algeria, Iran, Argentina? What industries or areas will be able to strengthen the accession of these countries? Can you announce a list of States that in the foreseeable future may also apply for replenishment of a number of participants?
S.V. Lavrov: The SCO is a multifaceted forum that deals, among other things, with security issues, for which this Organization was originally created to solve – so that there would be order on the borders between the Central Asian countries, the PRC and the Russian Federation. This task has been successfully solved for a long time.
As the SCO has evolved, it has paid more and more attention not only to the problems of repelling and neutralizing new challenges and threats: terrorism, extremism, separatism, but also to the issues of using its comparative advantages. Being located in most of the Eurasian continent, the participating countries of the Organization are interested in using these positive qualities in developing their economic ties, expanding trade flows and creating additional transport infrastructure that will minimize costs, increase profits and bring benefits to each of our countries.
If we add to this the possibility of using the Northern Sea Route, and not just land routes, then the SCO has impressive prospects. We are working with Indian friends in this direction – the use of the Northern Sea Route and those hydrocarbon deposits that are located on the shelf of the Russian Federation.
I would like to note that in addition to cooperation in the field of security, stability, development of economic, investment ties and infrastructure projects in our common region, cultural and humanitarian cooperation is also progressing within the SCO, including through political science centers and ministries of culture. Exchanges, exhibitions, tours – all this is in demand.
Equally useful and necessary is a structure called BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Interest in this global association is high and continues to grow. You mentioned some countries, including Algeria, Argentina and Iran, that are interested in this format. In fact, there are more than a dozen such states. In June, the next BRICS summit was held in videoconference mode under the chairmanship of the People’s Republic of China. In addition to the event itself, during which the leaders of the “five” discussed the internal affairs of this association and outlined plans for the future in the form of a declaration, a summit in the BRICS Plus format was held. In addition to the “Brics five”, the leaders of thirteen countries took part in it. This list is known. It consists of States representing all developing regions of the world without exception (Asia, Africa, Latin America). We welcome such interest.
Before talking specifically about how and when the expansion of the BRICS will begin, we agreed within the “five” to agree on criteria and principles for considering such appeals. The relevant requests are already being received in an official manner. In this regard, we expect that the approval of the criteria and principles for the expansion of the BRICS will not take a long time, but first we need to understand how this association will develop further in a potentially expanded composition.
Source: https://www.mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/1837496/
