NEW DELHI, June 29. /TASS/. Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar explained the status of his country’s relations with Russia as he said those were unique and steady, despite the global turbulence and the pressure that is being exerted on New Delhi.
"This relationship with Russia has kept steady despite all the turbulence in the world. It is, actually, for us a very unique relationship - I think, in some ways, for the Russians, also. In this period, for all the pressures on us, I think we made our own evaluation of the importance of this relationship. <…> Sometimes, this relationship is dumbed down to things like `oh, we are dependent on them for arms’. I think it’s far more complex," ANI quoted Jaishankar as saying during a roundtable in New Delhi on Wednesday.
He pointed to a "geopolitical logic" for what New Delhi has been doing with Russia. "Today, many things which we were working on even prior to 2022, which is how to expand our economic cooperation, those have born fruition. So, we actually have an upswing in the economic part of the relationship with Russia, even as you have very steady politics, and continuing security cooperation," the Indian foreign minister said.
India's top diplomat addressed the event that discussed the results of the foreign policy course Narendra Modi’s government has pursued in the past nine years. Commenting on India’s relations with the United States, Jaishankar said they were "exceptionally good" and expressed the hope that the two countries would conclude the Free Trade agreement.
He also noted growing interaction with Europe in the past nine years and said that India was passing through a "difficult phase" with China amid what he called an abnormal situation on the border with its neighbor.