Inaugural Session

Welcome remarks: Dr. Arvind Gupta, Director General, IDSA

Address by: Dr. Alexander Lukin, Vice President (for Research and International contact), Diplomatic Academy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Russian Federation

Keynote Address: Amb (retd) Prabhat Shukla, Joint Director, VIF, (former Ambassador to Russia)

In his welcome remarks, Dr. Arvind Gupta, Director General IDSA, said that the objective of this seminar was to discuss Indian and Russian views on Indo-Russia relations against the backdrop of emerging global challenges where it has become fashionable to say that geopolitical scene is shifting from West to East and its contours are not well defined. However, India, Russia and China are emerging as important players in the world today. India-Russia relations have moved strength to strength since Putin took over as the President for the first time and India-Russia relations have not been affected by other externalities or disharmony. India is an energy deficient country and hence Russia could be a provider of energy support. In addition, Indo-Russian defence cooperation has gone to higher level and hopefully it will reach its maximum one day. Overall, in the changing global scenario, this longstanding relation should be fructified to its best for better future of both the countries.

Dr. Alexander Lukin, in his address, stated that Russia is moving through an important transitional period, where an earlier President has returned to power. However, people have several questions on the changes taking place and a few are not satisfied with them. Even then, Russia has become more stable since 1990 and Russian Foreign Policy has become more consistent and pragmatic. It is not pro west or pro east but believes in good relation with all. Though India has become an important partner, trade has not grown as rapidly between the two countries. As a suggestion, he proposed that both India and Russia should dwell on more informal meetings for better relations where criticism is allowed.

Keynote Speaker Amb. (retd) Prabhat Shukla said that Indo-Russia relations are good, solid and stable but we can strive for better when Russia is our main strategic partner especially in realm of technology and defence. Since Russia is in a transitional phase, the need of the moment is an immediate change in its socio-economic and political model. Post Stalin, there has been no concrete model on what the system should be based. However, for India concerns in this relationship are China-Russia and Pakistan-Russia relations and similarly for Russia, Indo-US relations matter. To address the above concerns a hard dialogue is needed. That apart, in Afghanistan, no two other country’s interest converges as much as India and Russia’s. Even then, we are not able to capitalise or do anything about it as 2014 approaches. Another observation is about Russia’s defence export policy which seems to be aligning with that of west of late, to which we suggest not to as it will be a mistake. And there is a need to involve private sector from both sides as far as nuclear issue is concerned. Overall, a satisfactory relation that should grow stronger over time, he stated.

Report prepared by Anwesha Ray Chaudhuri, Research Assistant, IDSA