Russian Ambassador to India reaffirms Moscow’s support to a permanent seat for New Delhi at UNSC
By SHRI RAM SHAW
New Delhi: Reiterating that Russia will not do anything detrimental to India in its relations with Pakistan, Denis Alipov, Russian Ambassador to India said, “We always have our relations with India in the background when we talk of our relations with Pakistan, especially on defence.” Talking about various dimensions of time-tested relations between Russia and India, he reaffirmed Moscow’s support to a permanent seat for New Delhi at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Alipov was speaking at a seminar organised by India Writes Network and the Centre for Global India Insights (CGII) to mark 30 years of India-Russia Friendship Treaty titled ‘Next Steps in India-Russia Strategic Partnership: Old Friends, New Horizons’ in the National Capital on February 6. Manish Chand, CEO & Editor-in-Chief, India Writes Network (IWN), India and The World; and Director, Centre for Global India Insights (CGII) moderated the seminar. Kanwal Sibal, India’s former envoy to Russia; Pankaj Saran, former ambassador to Russia; Dr. Ivan Nosov, CEO, Sberbank India; and Mrs Smita Purushottam, former ambassador to Switzerland were also present at the event. Padma Shri Dr. Tatiana Shaumyan, Head of Centre of Indian Studies joined via video conferencing from Mosco.
However, facing a volley of questions from the scribes, Denis Alipov vividly replied to all questions on various concurrent issues in a candid conversation. He acknowledged that India-Russia ties have been under stress for sometime in terms of economic ties, which had accelerated since last year due to the “tectonic geopolitical” shifts in Europe, referring to the war in Ukraine.
EXCERPTS:
On the India-Russia bilateral relationship
Alipov said, “Russia wants to diversify its overall cooperation with India and the ties between the two countries are not directed against anyone. Both countries have forged a very rich architecture of cooperation that is beneficial to the world and are now looking at the emerging scenario in the trade sector in the backdrop of new economic realities.”
“The economic partnership has made impressive progress. In 2022, mutual trade broke record of $30 billion. Surely, it happened due to a 36-fold increase in Russian oil supplies, which now constitute 25% of Indian imports, making Russia the biggest crude exporter to India,” he said
Talking of the longstanding cooperation in defence and transfer of technology between the two countries, the Russian envoy said they did not mix technology transfer with politics, in a dig at the US. He said the US was good at advertising, including “the poor performance of Russian weapons in Ukraine.”
A weak Pakistan would not be better for the region
Alipov said, “We have maintained consistently that we will never do anything detrimental to India in our relations with Pakistan. We strangle our defence cooperation with Pakistan because it will impact our relations with India. We have limited defence relationship with Islamabad, very limited, to counter-terrorism.”
“We don’t think a weak Pakistan would be a better choice for the region, for India or Afghanistan. Meaning, destabilised Pakistan is not in the interests of any in the region. A strong anti-India Pakistan cannot be in the interest of any, particularly India,” he added.
Normalisation of India-China relations better for the world
Alpov said, “We would like to see the normalisation of India-China relations which will benefit the whole world. We understand there are serious impediments to that very serious border problem between the two countries. It took us around 40 years to resolve it, but ultimately, it’s the only way – to compromise. It is not for us to say what India and China should do. It is entirely a bilateral matter between India and China. The sooner there is normalisation between the two countries, the better for the whole world.”
“It is not for us to say what India and China should do. It is entirely a bilateral matter between them. The sooner there is a normalisation between the two countries, the better for the whole world,” Alipov said, adding that Russia would play a part only if invited. “We will play our part if we are invited.”
Deliveries of third S-400 regiment completed
The envoy said that Russia had completed deliveries of the third regiment of the S-400 Triumf air defence system and reiterated that they were committed to completing the deal on schedule. India contracted for a five S-400 regiments in a $5.43 billion deal signed in October 2018.
“It will be completed in the very near future…Both sides are committed to complete the whole contract and we certainly will do that. Nothing prevents that,” he said.
About India’s anxiety over Russian ties with China and Pakistan
Russian envoy said that while their ties with Beijing are very important, they are not a satellite state or “junior partner” of China. In fact, he added that Russia has never been a junior to anybody and does not know what being junior is like.
“We had discussions about India’s concerns over the unlimited partnership between Russia and China. With China, we have important relations, but we are not a junior partner. It is a partnership of equals. We have very close cooperation with the Chinese. But we will never be a junior partner to China or anyone else,” he said.
“We have maintained consistently that we will never do anything detrimental to India in our relations with Pakistan. We strangle our defence cooperation with Pakistan because it will impact our relations with India. We have a limited defence relationship with Islamabad, to counter-terrorism. We want to expand our economic partnership with Pakistan,” he said.
Russia has been trying to build ties in an incremental way with Pakistan given everybody’s stake in Afghanistan. “A destabilized Pakistan is not in the interests of any in the region. A strong anti-India Pakistan cannot be in the interest of any, particularly India,” Alipov said.
India’s support to Moscow amid Russia-Ukraine war
Russian envoy said that our friendship with India is time-tested, robust and comprehensive. “Not against anyone but for the good of all.” He blamed the West, especially the US, for creating a situation that led to the war in Europe. “Our relations have been strained because of the developments owing to what Europe did, not by us. The US went against the negotiations we initiated with the Ukrainians as early as March last year,” said Alipov.
Increasing India’s oil imports from Russia manifold
Alipov explained, “India has consistently rejected unilateral sanctions. In 2022, mutual trade broke a record of $30 billion. Surely it happened due to a 36-fold increase in Russian oil supplies, which now constitutes 25% of the Indian imports, making Russia the biggest crude exporter to India. We will continue to counter propaganda about Russia’s economic decline.”
“We already have a Rupee-Ruble mechanism. It’s now a matter for the banks to use it. Many Indian banks are over cautious. Using this mechanism does not invite any secondary sanctions if that is the concern. It’s not the case. It will take some time for the knowledge that it is not detrimental to Indian banks and we are going to see a positive expansion of this mechanism,” he added.
Taking a jibe at the West and the US
Alipov said, “It is sometimes amusing to read about US cooperation with India. They offer nothing like what we do in terms of advanced technology and technology transfer. We do not mix technology transfer with policies. Our projects compliment ‘Make in India’ and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ policies of India, unlike the West, do not offer all this.”