MOSCOW: National Security Adviser Ajit Doval called on Russian President Vladimir Putin and held a wide-ranging discussion on bilateral and regional issues. “They agreed to continue work towards implementing the India-Russia strategic partnership,” tweeted the Indian Embassy in Moscow.
This was Doval’s third major stopover in a major international capital in recent weeks. He had earlier met his counterparts Jake Sullivan in Washington and Tim Barrow in London. Significantly, Foreign Ministers from these countries will be in New Delhi in early March for the G20 ministerial.
The NSA also interacted with his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev a day earlier as part of the meeting of regional NSAs on Afghanistan which was also attended by Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui and Iranian NSA Ali Shamkhani. Foreign Ministers from China and Russia will also be in Delhi for the G20 meet.
Doval’s interactions with Russian President Putin and NSA Patrushev come against the backdrop of Indian reluctance to go the whole hog on rupee-rouble trade as officials here are reluctant to join the Russia system that has been developed as an alternative to SWIFT. They feel India would not want to be singled out and will show interest if other emerging nations such as Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia and South Africa also do so.
On Wednesday, the fifth meeting of Secretaries of Security Councils/NSAs on Afghanistan was not attended by Pakistan. Besides hosts Russia and India, it was also attended by top security officials from all five Central Asian countries and China.