India's SCO, G20 presidencies to strengthen world stability and security: Putin

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the Russian President Vladimir Putin, at Sochi, Russia.

In a New Year message of confidence in New Delhi, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that India’s presidencies of the SCO and G20 will build multi-dimensional cooperation between the two countries and will strengthen the stability and security in Asia and the entire world.

In messages to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Russian leader underlined that Russia and India marked the 75th anniversary of their diplomatic relations in 2022 and, relying on positive traditions of friendship and mutual respect, the countries continue to develop their specially privileged strategic partnership, the Kremlin said in a statement.

“I am confident that India’s recently started SCO and G20 presidencies will open new opportunities for building multi-dimensional Russia-India cooperation for the benefit of our peoples, in the interests of strengthening stability and security in Asia and the entire world,” he said. Putin added that the two countries carried out large-scale trade and economic projects in addition to energy, military technology and other areas of cooperation, and coordinated efforts in addressing important matters of regional and global agendas.

Putin is expected to visit India for the SCO and G20 summits in 2023.

Putin’s New Year message is a clear pointer that Russia, despite the Ukraine crisis and strictures of the West, will continue to invest in enhancing economic and strategic relations with India, said Manish Chand, CEO, India Writes Network and Director, Centre for Global India Insights (CGII).

The past few months have shown that although New Delhi has serious concerns about the Ukraine war, it will prefer to continue engagement with Moscow, a time-tested partner which continues to remain the source of the bulk of Indian weaponry, said Mr Chand.

India’s oil imports from Russia have continued to rise, totaling 908,000 barrels per day (bpd) in November this year, making Russia key to India’s energy security.