With Russian President Vladimir Putin scheduled to visit India in December for an annual summit-level meeting with the Indian leadership, including talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that country's envoy to India has once again reiterated the special and privileged strategic partnership between the two nations.
In a rare interaction with Indian and Russian journalists at the Press Club of India on Friday night, Ambassador Alexander M. Kadakin said, "We are the first two countries in the world that introduced this term 'strategic partnership', and it was way back in October 2000, when Mr. Putin came here for his first visit, and he signed the historic declaration of the strategic partnership with Mr. Vajpayee."
However, Ambassador Kadakin questioned the frequent use of the nomenclature 'strategic partnership', saying that with the passage of time, it has become quite irritating to hear it being used more often than actually necessary.
"Fourteen years have passed, and now, every country wants a strategic partnership with another country. India has got strategic partnerships with so many that I have lost count," he said.
"A question was asked, as to how has our strategic partnership evolved, and how has it changed, and together with the leaders of India, we have seen that our strategic partnership has become special and privileged. Special in the sense that we share with India, everything we have. Almost sensitive, almost confidential things we readily share with our friendly nation," he added.
"To sustain our march ahead together with India, we have this mechanism of yearly exchanges of summits. In the first half of December, President Putin will be in Delhi.
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"So, we are at the doorstep to important events in our bilateral relationship. On November 5, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin will arrive in New Delhi. We shall have a series of inter-governmental commissions. Then, there will be a visit by the Defence Minister, there will be a visit by the Foreign Minister, and then, we shall have the festival of Russian culture in November, December. Thereafter, President Putin will visit," Ambassador Kadakin said.
President of the Press Club of India, Mr. Anand Sahay, and members of the Russian and Indian media also spoke at the event.
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