Lavrov and Jaishankar: Synchronizing Watches and Strengthening Russian-Indian Ties

The events held in New Delhi from May 13-15 – the bilateral visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the expanded BRICS ministerial meeting – once again demonstrated the unique and unprecedented nature of the Russian-Indian special and privileged strategic partnership.

Sergey Lavrov and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar discussed the two countries’ joint plans.

Recent talks between the Russian and Indian Foreign Ministers S.V. Lavrov and S. Jaishankar were called upon to compare the positions of the two key powers on pressing regional and global issues and to determine a future schedule of bilateral contacts, including summit and high-level meetings, as well as important sessions of the two intergovernmental commissions on trade and economic, scientific and technical, cultural, and, separately, military-technical cooperation. A comparison of approaches on international issues, given the unprecedentedly high level of trust and mutual understanding between the parties, predictably confirmed the closeness of Russia and India’s positions, including on the situation surrounding Ukraine, Iran, and the complex development of a multipolar world order. The ministers emphasized their interest in continuing the useful coordination of approaches in multilateral formats at the UN, SCO, BRICS, and the G20.

Despite the Indian leadership’s multi-vector and pragmatic foreign policy with its inherent “strategic autonomy” and balancing, the talks demonstrated converging views on key international and bilateral issues. A clear commitment was made to further develop regular political dialogue, expand mutually beneficial trade, economic, and investment cooperation, industrial collaboration, and partnership in the military-defense, nuclear, energy, high-tech, and scientific-space sectors. Particular attention was paid to successful cooperation in the oil and gas sector, thanks to which bilateral trade is growing dynamically, now exceeding $65 billion. Given these........

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