‘Military understandings’ will be achieved during Putin’s India visit: Russian envoy Kudashev

India and Russia will achieve “military understandings” during President Vladimir Putin's visit, Russian envoy Nikolay R Kudashev said on Friday.

The envoy’s comments days ahead of Putin’s visit to India on Monday for the annual India-Russia summit.

Speaking exclusively to WION’s diplomatic correspondent Sidhant Sibal, Kudashev said, “One could easily await some new understandings in the spheres like connectivity, space, education, and also some military understandings will also be achieved, reflecting the growing level of confidence (between India and Russia).”

The annual summit level, which alternates between the two countries, will be an eventful day for India-Russia ties.

The day begins with defence minister Rajnath Singh and his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoygu co-chairing the Intergovernmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation, and external affairs minister Jaishankar meeting his counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

These meetings will be followed by the inaugural meeting of the newly instituted 2 + 2 mechanism at the level of the foreign and defence ministers.

In the afternoon the 21st India-Russia Annual Summit will kick off. Putin will be in India for 6 to 7 hours.

Few excerpts

WION: What will be the key focus of the Russian president's visit? How do you see the visit and how it will help the relationship?

Nikolay R Kudashev: The visit is historical. There was a small pause due to the pandemic conditions. It is a personal meeting, which is important because the volume of the relationship is immense. Rest assured, the visit will be rich in substance, the joint statement will give the results of the visit, which will be very substantial and give the whole gamut of our ties in the global arena and bilaterally. One can expect a set of agreements and deals (to be signed). One could easily await some new understandings in the spheres like connectivity, space, science and technology, education, arts and culture, and also some military understandings, reflecting the growing level of confidence.

WION: How much focus will be on regional issues like Afghanistan?

Nikolay R Kudashev: Definitely, Afghanistan is our common concern. We fully apricate Delhi's initiative when it convened the recent meeting of national security advisors, resulting in the famous Delhi Declaration. Afghanistan would be on the agenda and some new level of cooperation could be guaranteed while taking stock of the results of the Delhi Dialogue.

WION: Any update on deliveries of S-400 missile system?

Nikolay R Kudashev: The contract is being implemented, strictly as per the schedule, By the end of the year, expect fresh deliveries could be expected.