Pankaj Saran, Ambassador of India to the Russian Federation formally presented his Letters of Credence to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a formal ceremony in the Kremlin on Wednesday.
Ambassador Saran conveyed greetings of India’s President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to President Putin and reiterated India’s strong desire to further strengthen its relations with Russia in all areas. India was working closely with Russia to implement all 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, and again for the annual India-Russia bilateral Summit in India later in the year. Saran affirmed his commitment to work to advance the crucial India-Russia partnership in all aspects during his tenure in Russia.
In 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 also spoke of his meeting and discussions with Prime Minister Modi in December 2015 in Moscow.
In a career spanning 34 years with the Indian Foreign Service, Saran has held various diplomatic assignments abroad as well as at headquarters in New Delhi. Before assuming his present assignment (in January 2016) he was India’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh.
On Wednesday, Vladimir Putin received letters of credence from 16 new foreign ambassadors in a ceremony at the Grand Kremlin Palace’s Alexander hall symbolising the official start of their work as heads of diplomatic missions in Russia.
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