Foreign Secretary Shringla meets Russian academics in Moscow, exchange views on changing geopolitical landscape

Amid the fast-changing geopolitical landscape, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Thursday exchanged views with leading Russian academics and strategic thinkers on India-Russia relationship.

Amid the fast-changing geopolitical landscape, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Thursday exchanged views with leading Russian academics and strategic thinkers on India-Russia relationship. During the talks, Shringla highlighted the "unique nature" of bilateral ties and trust-based partnership between the two countries.

"Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla exchanged views with leading Russian academics and strategic thinkers on India-Russia relationship in view of the fast-changing geopolitical landscape. FS highlighted the unique nature of our close and trust-based partnership with Russia," Indian Embassy in Russia tweeted. "Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla called for greater interaction among the think tanks and strategic affairs analysts of India and Russia in line with our strong comprehensive bilateral cooperation," the embassy said in another tweet.

Foreign Secretary had earlier met Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov on Wednesday and held political consultations on a wide range of issues pertaining to the bilateral ties, including the schedule of the upcoming political contacts. During the meeting, the sides underlined their aspiration to increase the trade and economic turnover by expanding cooperation in traditional and high-tech spheres. They also noted the similarity of approaches by Russia and India to the pressing global and regional issues, as well as stressed the intention of the two countries to continue coordination of efforts at international and regional platforms, including the UN, G20, BRICS, SCO, RIC and EAEU.

The Foreign Secretary also met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and discussed wide-ranging Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between the two countries and ways to further strengthen it. Indian Embassy in Moscow had said in a tweet that the Foreign Secretary conveyed greetings of External Affairs S Jaishankar to the Russian leader. "They discussed the wide-ranging Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between India and Russia and ways to further strengthen it," the Embassy said.

Shringla said they discussed some regional and international issues of interest including cooperation in the UN and UNSC where India is a non-permanent member now. "We also spoke about issues like Afghanistan, which both countries have a direct interest in," he said. The Foreign Secretary had said they also discussed cooperation in the area of vaccines, global responses to COVID-19 and on how India and Russia can work together in partnership to deal with this issue. "There is a lot happening in the relationship. It is a very important relationship for both countries. I think we will see some developments reinforce the close and strategic partnership we both enjoy," he said.

Shringla extended invitation to Lavrov on behalf of Jaishankar to visit India. (ANI)

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