Dr. Ashwani Kumar, Hon’ble Minister of State for Planning, Parliamentary Affairs, Science & Technology and Earth Sciences led a high level parliamentary goodwill delegation to Russia comprising of 7 distinguished members of Parliament from different parties across the political spectrum as part of the program of the high level political dialogue between India and the Russian Federation.
During the visit the delegation met H.E. Mr. Konstantin Kosachev, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the State Duma (Lower House) and other members of the committee. They also met H.E. Mr. Il’yas Umakhanov, Vice Chairman of the Federation Council (Upper House) and a group of Deputies from the Federation Council.
In the meeting with the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the State Duma, discussions were held on bilateral and international cooperation and security issues of concern to both counties. Both sides agreed that for India and Russia, as two multi-religious societies, terrorism and religious extremism posed a grave threat. In the context of recent developments in Pakistan and in the Middle East, both sides agreed that terrorism in any form and anywhere has to be jointly fought and eliminated and re-affirmed the need for the two countries to strengthen their counter terrorism cooperation. Taking note of developments in the Middle East and North Africa, both sides re-affirmed the importance of respecting the sovereignty of countries and upholding international law. It was agreed that international issues have to be resolved through bilateral and multilateral approaches within the framework of the UN Charter and international law.
Both sides affirmed the importance of cooperation in countering the proliferation of WMDs including nuclear weapons that pose a threat to global peace and security. The Russian leadership reiterated their support to India’s permanent membership of the UNSC and proposed active co-operation in regional and international fora including G20, Shanghai Co-operation Organization, BRICS and the UN.
In the meeting with the Federation Council, Dr. Kumar and the accompanying delegation held extensive discussions on ways to further promote Parliamentary exchanges that was identified by both sides as an important mechanism for the India- Russia strategic partnership. Both sides agreed to create country specific friendship groups in each others’ legislatures.
Dr. Kumar also interacted with Russian heads of the bilateral S&T cooperation programs. He expressed satisfaction at the recent renewal of the ILTP program for a further 10 year period of 2011-20. He also reviewed progress being made in several on going joint S&T projects including the cooperation being discussed for the new research areas of biotechnology, nanotechnology, medical sciences and meteorology.
Dr. Kumar had useful interactions with several distinguished academics specializing in Indian studies. During the interaction Dr. Kumar underscored that the India-Russia strategic partnership would be one of the important partnerships between two nations in the 21st Century. He discussed the possibility of common approaches to global issues such as international terrorism, climate change, nuclear proliferation, pandemics etc.
