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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (June 1, 2017) met Russian President Vladimir Putin at the 18th Annual India Russia Summit at St. Petersburg, where he recalled his first visit to St. Petersburg as Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2001. He said ties between India and Russia span the spectrum from Culture to Defence.
The Prime Minister said 70 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries have been marked by a high degree of convergence on various bilateral and global matters.
The Prime Minister described the St. Petersburg Declaration, issued on Thursday, as a benchmark of stability in a turbulent, interdependent and interconnected world. He said India’s participation as a guest country in SPIEF and his address there tomorrow would further deepen economic cooperation between the two nations.
The Prime Minister described energy cooperation as one of the cornerstones of the relationship between India and Russia, and noted that this cooperation in the nuclear, hydrocarbon, and renewable energy sectors has been considerably deepened by the discussion and decisions taken today. In this context he mentioned the agreement of Units 5 and 6 of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant.
The Prime Minister emphasized the role of the private sector in enhancing trade and commerical ties between the two countries, adding that India and Russia are close to achieving the target of 30 billion US dollars worth of investment by 2025.
Speaking on the theme of connectivity, the Prime Minister mentioned cooperation between the two countries in the International North South Transport Corridor. Among other initiatives, the Prime Minister mentioned the forthcoming first Tri-services exercise – INDRA 2017, between the two countries.
He announced that a road in Delhi has been renamed after Ambassador Alexander Kadakin, whom he described as a friend of India, who passed away recently.
