MOSCOW, August 21. /TASS/. Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar invited his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to visit India.
"I also invited the minister to visit India to continue our dialogue," Jaishankar said at a joint press conference with Lavrov, thanking the Russian side "for an open and productive exchange of views."
According to him, "the Indian side looks forward to further developing these relations in the same spirit that has underpinned them for decades."
Jaishankar called the talks meaningful. According to him, this meeting made it possible to comprehensively consider the entire spectrum of bilateral relations between India and Russia.
"We believe that the relations between India and Russia have been among the steadiest of the major relationship after the second world war," he said.
According to the Indian Foreign Minister, he and his Russian counterpart discussed the results of yesterday's meeting of the intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation.
"We reaffirmed our shared ambition to expand bilateral trade in a balanced and sustainable manner, including by increasing India's exports to Russia," he said.
The Indian Foreign Minister also called for expediting the opening of two new Indian consulates in Kazan and Yekaterinburg.
"These consulates will further deepen our regional outreach and interaction and enhance trade and people-to-people ties," he said.
In the context of global politics, Jaishankar and Lavrov discussed commitment to global governance reform, the need to expand and revitalize the UN Security Council in light of modern realities, cooperation within the G20, BRICS and SCO, developments in Ukraine, the Middle East and Afghanistan.
"I want to say that India's approach continues to emphasize dialogue and diplomacy as essential to resolve differences," Jaishankar said.