Russia-India annual summit postponed for the First time in two decades
– By Vinayak Barot
New Delhi: The annual summit between India and Russia postponed for the first time in the last two decades. India and Russia have not held their annual summit.
A statement from Indian Officials said that “There is indeed some discontent over Russia’s repeated comments on India and casting aspersions over New Delhi’s decision to join the Quad.”
Moscow expressed severe reservations on New Delhi joining the Indo-Pacific initiative and Quad, thereby tilting more towards the US.
India and Russia have been holding the annual summit, which is the highest institutionalised dialogue mechanism in the strategic partnership, since 2000 when the ‘Declaration on the India-Russia Strategic Partnership’ was signed between both sides.
The bilateral ties between India and Russia were upgraded from ‘Strategic Partnership’ to ‘Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership’ in December 2010 during the visit of the Russian President Vladimir Putin to India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited Vladivostok in September 2019 to attend the 20th India-Russia Bilateral Summit. Prior to that, President Putin visited New Delhi in October 2018 for the 19th annual summit.
Ashok Sajjanhar, a former diplomat who was posted in Moscow in the early 2000 said that “This is indeed a matter of concern that the two countries who share a deep relationship could not even hold the summit virtually. Even in 2014 during the Ukranian crisis, President Putin was here for a few hours only to hold the summit,”
If there are issues creeping up in this ‘special and privileged relationship’ then it needs to be discussed. “Both sides have to come together to address the issues.” Sajjanhar said.
According to him, Russia’s attempt at mediation between India and China may have created some degree of discontent in South Block and the fact that their Foreign Minister is repeatedly slamming Indo-Pacific and Quad shows that it is saying this only to appease the audiences in China and Pakistan.
The Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov already slammed the concept of Indo-Pacific as the US’s attempt to divide the world and contain China. Lavrov said “it is being party to “anti-China” policies by aligning with the western world.”
India’s ambassador to Russia from 2004 to 2007 and former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal said that “At a time when the Chinese are threatening us and are sitting at the border, Lavrov should have not made such comments.”
“This is not the opportune time for him to keep stating the same thing again and again knowing all too well that the China threat is staring at us, but wittingly or unwittingly, the Russians are overlooking the threat.” Sibal added.
“If Russia is concerned about India and the US coming close to each other in strategic and defence terms, this is the all the more reason why they should reach out to India. New Delhi and Moscow have to bridge the gap,” Sibal said.
The political experts from Russia believe that India and China both are very important for Russia in the view of defence strategy. Russia’s relations with India are very old and trustworthy. India always remained a major partner of Russia in the defence sector. On the other side – China is also important for Russia to counter any unexpected activity of the US.
Russia and China may come more together to counter any unexpected activity of the US, the Russian experts said.
Russia has already tried to short-out the dispute between India and China over border standoff. In September, during the RIC (Russia-India-China) meeting, it was Moscow that facilitated a meeting on the side lines between External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi. This took place post the Galwan clash in which 20 Indian soldiers lost their lives while fighting the Chinese troops.
