MOSCOW, July 2. /TASS/. Russia and India do not set any limits to the development of the bilateral cooperation, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov said on Thursday in an open interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman.

"There is an expression <…> “the sky is the limit.” Yet if we are talking about Russian-Indian relationship, then for Russia and India the sky is not the limit, the perspective of the development of our relationship is not restricted by anything,” the diplomat said.

The deputy foreign minister noted that in addition to traditional spheres of cooperation, lately the two sides activated the interaction in new directions — on high technologies, space, healthcare, pharmaceuticals. The senior diplomat pointed out that Russian-Indian relations remain stable and friendly over decades, regardless of the changes in the global political situation.

"Over the years, our countries developed very strong ties, established cooperation mechanisms in very different spheres between governments, as well as along the lines of private entrepreneurship and civic societies. We have a very active dialogue on the political level, including very active top parliamentary exchanges, connections between regions,” he added.

US-China stand-off

The existing problems in the Indian-Chinese relations including the border dispute do not interfere with the trilateral cooperation between Moscow, New Delhi and Beijing, Igor Morgulov said in his interview for TASS.

Morgulov noted the significance and emblematic nature of the fact that just a week after the skirmishes at the control line between India and China, the three foreign ministers had a successful meeting in the Russia-India-China (RIC) format. "India and China also continue to constructively contribute to the development of cooperation within other formats that unite our countries such as BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — TASS] and the SCO [Shanghai Cooperation Organization — TASS]. So, these problems, which undeniably exist in the Indian-Chinese ties, do not get in the way of advancing cooperation with New Delhi and Beijing in multilateral frameworks," he said.

At the same time, the deputy foreign minister underscored that India and China are capable of finding solutions to whatever problems arise between them without any mediation from third parties. "It is often asked whether Russia should interfere as a friend to both India and China to act as a kind of mediator in settling these differences. I think that any intervention, even the one with good intentions, in such a delicate matter as border disputes is not just inexpedient but can also seriously hurt the efforts Beijing and New Delhi are independently making to find a way out of this situation," Morgulov said.

Overnight between June 15 and 16, on the union territory of Ladakh near the Galwan River, some skirmishes occurred between Indian and Chinese servicemen. According to New Delhi, at least 20 Indian soldiers died, while 76 were wounded as a result of this conflict. The Indian authorities claim that about 45 Chinese soldiers were killed or wounded.