India Russia cooperation in the field of Disaster Management India Russia joint Commission meeting held today The India-Russia Joint Commission meeting was held here today to discuss bilateral cooperation between the two countries. The Russian delegation was chaired by Mr. Vladimir Andreevich Puchkov, Minister of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination Consequences of Natural Disasters and the Indian delegation was chaired by Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh. Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh said that the two countries are linked by geography, history and culture and the linkages in the field of disaster management have continued to grow beyond boundaries. Shri Rajnath Singh mentioned that during the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction during March last year in Sendai, Japan we had agreed to enhance ongoing cooperation in dealing with emergency situation, natural disasters, research and training. Shri Rajnath Singh said that India is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world. Floods, droughts, cyclones and landslides are common hazards, he added. He mentioned that the country is committed for convergence of disaster risk reduction with developmental programmes and disaster management is not an issue of disaster alone rather it has now become more of development issue. Shri Rajnath Singh said that the cooperation in the areas such as controlling floods, minimizing its consequences as well as collaboration in capacity building has been rightly highlighted in our Joint Implementation Plan. He hoped that with the signing of the Joint Implementation Plan, the two countries will acquire new character with enhanced levels of cooperation in the field of Disaster Risk Reduction. Speaking on this occasion, Shri Kiren Rijiju said that the output of this deliberation will pave way for the comprehensive and structured cooperation to build capacities of the first responder and other allied forces. He said that the Annual Summit meeting between the Prime Minister of India and the President of the Russian Federation is the highest institutionalized dialogue mechanism under the Strategic Partnership between India and the Russian Federation. Shri Rijiju further said that the field of Disaster Management would initiate new era of friendship that will enable both sides to work in close proximity in order to minimize the risk we face due to increased frequency of natural calamities. He further said that India will be benefitted by the state of the art technology and structures, Russia have created to monitor real time basis different events. Shri Rijiju mentioned that India has developed sufficient experience in handling disasters and has always been willing to extend technical and financial support to the neighbouring countries. In the aftermath of Nepal earthquake 2015, India was the first country to provide humanitarian assistance and to lead the rescue efforts, he added. The Minister of State for Home Affairs mentioned that India has adopted an integrated approach to ensure sustainable, inclusive development. He said that India is making consistent efforts to include disaster mitigation features into the new development programs including revisiting some of the ongoing development schemes for mainstreaming disaster risk reduction. Earlier, the Russian delegation visited the Headquarters of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) where DG, NDRF Shri O.P. Singh made a presentation to the visiting delegation. The Russian delegation expressed their satisfaction on the visit and mentioned that the bilateral cooperation in the field of disaster management between the two countries will be carried forward in future. The 10 member Russian delegation, senior officers of MHA, NDRF and NDMA attended the meeting.
