New Delhi, Dec 6:
India has a 60-year engagement with Russia and it is not correct to interpret as if there is some handicap that New Delhi has by having the relationship, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said while addressing the eight technology conclave .
“We have a relationship with Russia and it is not a relationship that happened in one instant, one day, one month or one year. It is an accumulated relationship of close to 60 years,” he said.
“Often I see a problem defined in a way as though somewhere there’s some handicap that India has by having this relationship,” he said, adding “this relationship has saved us many times.” “If we are over dependent or not, actually at the end of the day it depends on us,” he said.
Explaining New Delhi’s relationship with Russia as well as the US and Europe, he said India now has a large “portfolio” of international relationships and is tasked with finding the balance.
“As you have more options, it’s natural for a country to make the best of it,” he said.
The foreign minister talked about India having multiple partners on the world stage today and having the skills to play them off while maintaining a level of “trust and confidence” with each one of them.
S Jaishankar also referred to historical aspects of the engagement between the two sides.
“If you look at the Eurasian landmass, it makes sense that India and Russia would have strong relations because it is in accordance with the first principle of politics of your neighbour’s neighbour,” he said.
Talking about India’s economic progression, he said the country is playing catch up in many ways as the era of reform was not necessarily the era of technology.
“We are in many areas playing catch up. We are playing catch up because while our era of reform started three decades ago, the era of reform was not necessarily the era of technology,” he argued.
