Russian envoy says outcome of India-Russia Annual Summit would be 'sizeable & formidable'

Ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to India, scheduled for December 6 (Monday), Russian Envoy to India Nikolay Kudashev said on Saturday that negotiating teams are working on the outcomes of the India-Russia Annual Summit and stressed that it is clear that one of the outcomes would be a sizeable and formidable joint political statement.

"It would be a very comprehensive paper, a comprehensive document covering all dimensions of our ties beginning with global issues and the UN revived commitment to itself to its central position in the modern world. Then would come regional issues, Afghanistan included," he told ANI.

Kudashev said that it would include COVID-19 concerns and much space would be devoted to bilateral relations and "new inputs into this unique track of our relationship, bringing onboard new technologies, ideas, people and regions." He added a sizeable amount of agreement and memoranda that can be expected.

Kudashev made it clear that the Summit will not be an ordinary event.

"This (agreements and memoranda) would be announced in the Summit as is usually the case with bilateral between two countries and the size of political commitments would be bringing sizeable, practical, pragmatic and economic outcomes, giving impetus to our bilateral cooperation," the Russian envoy said.

Putin, PM Modi to 'outline new large-scale initiatives' at India-Russia Annual summit

As India is all set to welcome the Russian President for the New Delhi-Moscow Summit, Putin said that he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will draft out new large-scale initiatives to further strengthen the bilateral relationship. 

Addressing a ceremony where Putin received letters of credence from foreign ambassadors, he called India one of the "authoritative centres of the multipolar world with a foreign policy philosophy and priorities that are closely aligned with our own."

Meanwhile, Presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that Moscow and India will sign about 10 bilateral agreements, including some of which are quite important and semi-confidential ones. He, however, declined to specify names of agreements asserting that they are still under work. But he did mention they are essential for the progress of bilateral cooperation in most varied sectors.