The Ambassador of India to the Russian Federation Pankaj Saran presented his Letters of Credence to the President of Russia His Excellency Vladimir Putin at a formal ceremony in the Kremlin today.
Ambassador Saran conveyed the greetings of the President Shri Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to President Putin and reiterated India’s strong desire to further the strengthen its relations with Russia in all areas. He conveyed to the President that India was working closely with Russia to implement the decisions taken at the December 2015 Summit in Moscow. He also said that India was looking forward to the visit of President Putin for the BRICS Summit in Goa on 15-16 October 2016, as well as to the annual India-Russia bilateral Summit in India later this year. The Ambassador affirmed his commitment to work towards advancing the very important India-Russia partnership in all areas during his tenure in Russia.
In his warm references to India, President Putin described India as Russia’s Special and Privileged Strategic Partner, and noted that cooperation between the two countries is developing intensively, constructively and in mutually beneficial ways. This work, he said, is based on goodwill of the people of both countries, convergence of long-term national development goals and objectives and close positions on key global and regional issues. He spoke highly of his meeting and discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2015 in Moscow.
In a career spanning 34 years, Ambassador Pankaj Saran has held various diplomatic assignments abroad as well as Headquarters. Before taking up his present assignment he was India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh.
Moscow
20 April 2016.
