St. Petersburg (Russia): Asserting that each Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are “accountable” leaders, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday said they both are capable of solving issues between the two countries, and that it was important that no “extra-regional power” ought to intervene within the course of.
With Russia publicly important of the Quad, the four-nation grouping of India, the US, Japan and Australia, Vladimir Putin additionally instructed information company Press Trust of India that although it was lower than Moscow to evaluate how any nation ought to take part in an initiative and to what extent they need to construct their relations with different international locations however no partnership ought to be geared toward making associates in opposition to anybody.
The Russian President’s remarks, in response to a query on Moscow’s view on Quad in addition to India’s participation within the grouping, have been a veiled reference to the Chinese declare that the grouping is to comprise Beijing’s affect within the strategic Indo-Pacific area.
He additionally asserted that there have been no “contradictions” in Russia’s partnership with India and the ties between Moscow and Beijing.
“Yes, I do know that there are some issues related to India-China relations but there are always a lot of issues between neighbouring countries but I know the attitude of both the Prime Minister of India and also the President of China. These are very responsible people and they earnestly treat one another with utmost respect and I believe that they will always arrive at a solution to any issue that they might face.”
“But it is crucial that no different extra-regional energy is interfering with that,” the Russian President told news agency PTI through a translator during a virtual interaction.
It has been more than a year since the military standoff between China and India erupted in eastern Ladakh on May 5, 2020 during which there were fatalities on both sides for the first time in decades. They have made limited progress in achieving disengagement at the Pangong Lake area while negotiations for similar steps at other friction points remained deadlocked.
Asked about the growing proximity between Russia and China and if that will impact the Indo-Russia security and defence cooperation, President Putin said the relations between India and Russia were developing quite rapidly, quite successfully based on “trust”.
“We extremely recognize such a excessive stage of cooperation with our Indian associates. These relations are of a strategic nature. They cowl a complete vary of avenues of our cooperation in financial system, power and hi-tech. In defence, and I’m not simply speaking about buy of Russian arms…We have very deep profound relations with India primarily based on belief,” he said.
President Putin also asserted that India is Russia’s only partner that they are working together with on “elaborating and manufacturing, especially in India, advanced weapon systems and technologies but that is not where our cooperation ends because our cooperation is multifaceted.”
During the interplay with choose high editors of main worldwide information companies, together with from the US, India, the UK, Germany and France, Vladimir Putin replied to broad ranging points, together with Russia-US ties, the pandemic scenario, the US sanctions in opposition to Russia and the Gaza concern.
Asked about Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s criticism of Quad as “Asian NATO” and his view on India’s participation in the grouping, Vladimir Putin said, “we are not participating in the quad, it is not my place to give my assessment to any other country participating in any initiative because every sovereign nation has the right to decide with whom and to what extent they are building their relations. I only believe that any partnership between countries should be aimed at making friends against anyone.”
Ahead of his maiden summit with US President Joe Biden in Geneva on June 16, the Russian President additionally mentioned that he was not anticipating any “breakthrough”.
“We are not taking steps first – I’m talking about the steps that deteriorated our relations. It was not us who introduced sanctions against US, it was the United States who did that on every occasion and even without grounds, just because our country exists,” he mentioned.
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