“India great power, friendly nation, time tested friend” – says Vladimir Putin, President of Russia to PM Modi

Putin who arrived in New Delhi on Monday evening and met Modi at Hyderabad house expressed his concern about the situation in Afghanistan. He flagged “fight against terrorism, drug trafficking and organised crime” as the key challenges on which both the countries will have to co-operate. The Russian president in his opening remarks said “ It is natural we are concerned about the development of the situation in Afghanistan”. He called India as a “great power”, a “friendly” country and a “time tested friend”.

India signed 4 agreements with Russia as the two countries began their first ever 2+2 ministerial dialogue on Monday morning. Defence minister Rajnath Singh met his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoigu and the two sides signed two contracts for manufacture of nearly 6 lakh AK 203 rifles under a joint venture in Amethi Uttar Pradesh, which was cleared by the government just two days ago.

Apart from the agreement for the Kalashnikov rifles, the two countries also signed an agreement for military technology corporation for the next decade.

Rajnath Singh in his opening remarks said that Russia is India’s long-standing special and privileged strategic partner with time-tested relations based on common interests in multilateralism, global peace and prosperity, mutual understanding and trust.