‘Helping Pak combat terror good for India’
Ahead of his visit to India on Thursday, Russia President Vladimir Putin responds to HT questions about key issue in an email interview. Excerpts:
What results do you expect from the summit, primarily as far as Russian-Indian political, trade and economic relations are concerned?
As the President of the Russian Federation, I have been to India five times. I particularly remember my visit in October 2000, when we signed the historic Declaration on Strategic Partnership with the Indian partners.
I note with satisfaction the commitment of the Indian leadership to searching for new promising areas of cooperation.
Serious preparatory work has been done during the past sessions of the InterGovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation and the Indo-Russian Forum on Trade and Investment (Nov 5). Joint strategic projects include construction of new units for Indian nuclear power plants, promotion of Russian Sukhoi Superjet-100 and MS-21 aircraft to the Indian market, introduction of the GLONASS system in the sectors of the Indian economy. Our priorities include building a butyl rubber plant, helicopter manufacturing, creating ‘a smart city’ on the basis of Russian technologies, organizing assembly of industrial tractors.
We attach particular importance to the development of military and technical cooperation. Furthermore, we will exchange views on current international and regional issues and on deepening foreign policy coordination.
Lately concerns have been raised in India about intensification of military and technical cooperation between Russia and Pakistan. Do you think military and technical cooperation between Russia and India can be transformed?
Our countries have been maintaining military and technical cooperation for many decades.
I would like to emphasize that
India is a reliable and time-tested partner.
The high level of bilateral cooperation and trust allows us to start a gradual transition from the traditional producer consumer model to joint development and production of advanced weapons systems. We already have examples of such effective cooperation, by which I mean the production of high-precision up-todate BrahMos missiles and creation of a multifunctional fifth-generation fighter aircraft.
As for Pakistan, we have held talks on Russia’s possible assistance aimed at improving effectiveness of counter-terrorism and antidrug operations. In my view, this kind of cooperation serves the long-term interests of all countries of the region, including
India.
What is Russia’s position on India’s plan to participate in development of oil and gas deposits in Eastern Siberia? What are Russia’s prospects of supplying natural gas to India through a pipeline? Historically, Russia has exported most of its hydrocarbons to the West. However, European consumption is increasing too slowly, while political, regulatory and transit risks are on the rise. At the same time, the economies of Asian countries are growing rapidly. Thus, we are interested in diversifying destinations of our deliveries.
We expect to secure ourselves a role of a reliable energy supplier to the Asian markets. At the same time, we intend to boost economic growth in Russia’s Eastern Siberia and Far East regions and build new infrastructure there.
For the time being, Russian liquefied natural gas transportation seems the best choice. Last year the Gazprom Marketing and Trading Company already delivered to India two LNG shipments totaling 0.11 million tons in all. A long-term agreement on LNG supplies signed between the Gazprom Group and India’s GAIL in 2012 entered into force in June 2014: it provides for the delivery of 2.5 million tons a year for the period of 20 years. India will start receiving LNG shipments as early as in 2017, or, in case the deadlines are shifted, by all means no later than in 2021.