Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the areas of priority for cooperation between India and Russia include combating terrorism and extremism; advancing peace and stability in Afghanistan; working together for a stable, balanced, peaceful and prosperous Asia Pacific; and cooperating for development in other countries.
"I conveyed my deepest condolences for the loss of lives in the terrorist attack in Chechnya. This also reflects our many shared challenges," Prime Minister Modi said in his media statement during the official visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India.
"Our areas of priority for our cooperation include combating terrorism and extremism; advancing peace and stability in Afghanistan; working together for a stable, balanced, peaceful and prosperous Asia Pacific; and, cooperating for development in other countries," he added.
Prime Minister Modi said institutions like BRICS, East Asia Summit and G 20 have also widened our framework of engagement.
"This is President Putin's eleventh Annual Summit and my first. This Summit reinforced my conviction in the extraordinary value and strength of this partnership. I am confident that our bilateral cooperation and international partnership will acquire new vigour and scale new heights in the years ahead," he added.
Prime Minister Modi further said it is truly a great pleasure to welcome President Putin to India.
"We have met twice at the opposite ends of the world - in Brazil and Australia. I am honoured to host him in Delhi for the annual Summit. Since the turn of the century, he has been a key architect of our partnership," said Prime Minister Modi.
"President Putin and Prime Minister Vajpayee launched the annual Summit process in 2000. When Prime Minister Vajpayee held the first of summits in Moscow in November 2001, I was there to sign the sister-state agreement between Gujarat and Astrakhan," he added.
Prime Minister Modi said President Putin is a leader of a great nation with which we have a friendship of unmatched mutual confidence, trust and goodwill.
"We have a strategic partnership that is incomparable in content," he added.
