‘Widening Options While Ensuring Consistent Sensitivity To A Strategic Partner’s Interests’

NEW DELHI:  On ‘Talking Point‘, Ambassador P.S. Raghavan, Former Head of the National Security Advisory Board and an Ex-Envoy to Russia and Dmitri Trenin, Director of the Carnegie Moscow Centre discuss Russia-India ties with StratNews Global Associate Editor Amitabh P. Revi. India’s External Affairs Minister(EAM) Dr S. Jaishankar after meeting his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov acknowledged a new dimension of Russia-India relations in the 2+2 (Foreign and Defence Ministers) meeting which will take place at “a time of mutual convenience this year” and “the progress in our cooperation being very much on display when the annual bilateral summit(between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes place this year.” With the Taliban claiming to control 85 % of Afghanistan, the minister said, “Afghanistan occupied a lot of our attention.” Apart from reviewing the ‘Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership’, the Indo-Pacific and “India supporting cooperation that reflects the multi-polar and rebalanced character of world politics” was discussed too, the EAM said at a joint press conference. The situation in Syria, Iran and Libya also figured in talks