Russia-India ties at their peak – Alexander Kadakin

As Russia marked Diplomat’s Day on Monday, February, the Russian Ambassador to India, Alexander Kadakin, who has spent more than 25 years in the country in various diplomatic roles, reflected on the strength of the bilateral relationship.

“At present the relations between Russia and India are at the peak of their development,” the ambassador told the Voice of Russia, talking about how the signing of the declaration of strategic partnership by Vladimir Putin and Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2000 set the tone for an enhanced relationship. “Ten years after that, our partnership entered the stage of special and privileged strategic partnership, which Russia does not have with any other country of the world,” Kadakin said. “In other words, our relations are at developing, which manifests itself in a diverse multisided cooperation between the Russian Federation and its great friend India.”

Indo-Russian cooperation

Ambassador Kadakin said the strategic partnership engulfs a wide number of areas, including military and technical cooperation, the field of nuclear energy, space exploration and the construction of various enterprises in India.  Kadakin praised the development of the BrahMos cruise missile. “BrahMos gets its name from the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia. In other words, our cooperation encompasses literally all area of human activity, as it should be between two friendly states,” Kadakin said.

“As far as the prospects of the Russian-Indian cooperation, strategic partnership and friendship go, even the sky and the space are not limit for their development,” Kadakin said.  The ambassador added that the term ‘strategic partnership’ meant the countries had confidence in each other and were planning to work together for “decades to come.”  

The Russian Ambassador was also full of praise for Indian diplomats. “We are primarily dealing with well-prepared, very knowledgeable highly professional Indian diplomats with great traditions,” he said. “Indian diplomacy is well known all over the world by its detailed work on every issue. As far as the daily work goes, first of all this is a friendly country, friendly environment. Indian people like Russia and we love India. And that determines everything.”

Russia cherishes memory of T.N. Kaul – Alexander Kadakin

Kadakin said he valued the Diplomat’s Day festivities that are now marked by Russian diplomats worldwide. “This holiday is quite new, this holiday of Russian diplomacy. But we were happy when we finally got our professional holiday. I would like to wish you success first of all in professional affairs so that our relationships with all countries where we have diplomatic representation are strengthened.” The ambassador said the holiday was also a good occasion to celebrate the warm ties with the Indian diplomatic community.  “Here in India we will celebrate this holiday with our Indian friends – it has already a tradition that there is a tight cooperation between the embassies and the Indian Ministry of External Affairs,” Kadakin said. “Fairly recently together with the Ministry we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the outstanding Indian diplomat Triloki Nath Kaul.” 

First published by The Voice of Russia.

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