【New Delhi】Russia and India today(10-05-2017) agreed to take forward collaborative projects in a range of sectors, including nuclear energy and joint projects in third countries, as the two sides prepared for a Summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin on June one.
They took stock of implementation of various key bilateral initiatives in economic field at a meeting of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC), a key forum to address major issues concerning bilateral ties.
During the meeting, co-chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, there was convergence of views and interests on a wide array of issues, the external affairs ministry said.
○India-Russia International North-South trade corridor plan inches towards reality
【New Delhi】Inching closer to making the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC) a reality -- connecting India with Russia and Europe via Iran -- a dry run of container movement via the green corridor (smooth customs facilitation) may be conducted soon, marking the 70th anniversary of Indo-Russian diplomatic ties this month.
INSTC will substantially reduce time taken and cost for transport of goods between India and Eurasia once fully functional and increase economic activities between India and the resource-rich Russia as well as markets of Europe.
The modalities of making INSTC functional was discussed at a multi-stakeholder meeting recently, people familiar with the developments told The Economic Times. INSTC is one of corridors that Delhi is working on as part of connectivity initiatives parallel to China's One Belt One Road strategy.
○China says no to Moscow, Beijing, Delhi trilateral defence ties
【New Delhi】China has turned down a Russian effort to bring defence ministers of India, Russia and China on one platform in Moscow, fuelling speculation in New Delhi that this has been done keeping Pakistan sensitivities in mind.
The refusal was officially communicated last week, which was also the time the Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal Pradesh took off despite strong Chinese protests.
The trilateral meeting was to take place on April 25, a day ahead of the Moscow Conference on International Security. Defence minister Arun Jaitley is scheduled to visit the security meet. Russia was keen that as a strategic outreach the defence ministers of the three countries should do a trilateral to explore an architecture of security cooperation.
While no specific reason was given, the speculation is that China did not want to signal that it was in anyway trying to undermine its special defence relationship with Pakistan by entering into an arrangement with Russia and India.
【News source】
India, Russia gear up for Modi-Putin Summit
International North South Transportation Corridor trade route inching closer to reality
International North South Transportation Corridor for better Indo-Russian connectivity inches towards reality
China says no to Moscow, Beijing, Delhi trilateral defence ties
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