Russia’s New Foreign Policy Plan Talks Of ‘Deepening' And 'Further Enhancement’ Of Ties With India

Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday approved Moscow’s new foreign policy strategic planning document in which he highlighted ‘further strengthening’ of ties with India as well as China.

Vladimir Putin holds his papers during the Russian-Chinese talks at the Grand Kremlin Palace, on March 21, 2023 in Moscow, Russia.

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New Delhi: In the backdrop of the ongoing war with Ukraine, Russia Friday released its new foreign policy strategic document in which Moscow highlighted “deepening” and “further enhancement” of ties with New Delhi and Beijing across all sectors — from trade and technology. The document, which supplements Russia’s 2021 National Security Strategy, was released by President Vladimir Putin Friday where it also stressed on Moscow prioritising the role played by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the RIC (Russia, India, China), BRICS and other such groupings where West is not a party to.

"Russia will continue to build up a particularly privileged strategic partnership with the Republic of India with a view to enhance and expand cooperation in all areas on a mutually beneficial basis and place special emphasis on increasing the volume of bilateral trade, strengthening investment and technological ties, and ensuring their resistance to destructive actions of unfriendly states and their alliances,” the policy said.

Emphasising on the fact that Russia follows an “independent and multi-vector” foreign policy, Russia said: “In order to help adapt the world order to the realities of a multipolar world, Russia intends to make it one of priorities to enhance the capacity and international role of the interstate associations”, such as the BRICS, the SCO, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the RIC, among others.

"Russia will continue to build up a particularly privileged strategic partnership with the Republic of India with a view to enhance and expand cooperation in all areas on a mutually beneficial basis and place special emphasis on increasing the volume of bilateral trade, strengthening investment and technological ties, and ensuring their resistance to destructive actions of unfriendly states and their alliances,” said the document.

India and Russia have shared a ‘Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership’ since December 2010, which was upgraded from ‘Strategic Partnership’ signed in October 2000.

On Russia’s growing ties with China, the document said, Moscow will aim for “further strengthening the comprehensive partnership and the strategic cooperation” with Beijing in order to “ensure security, stability and sustainable development at the global and regional levels, both in Eurasia and in other parts of the world”.

With the larger goal of developing the Eurasian region, Russia said it will bring in China for greater infrastructure development in some of the projects such as the Baikal-Amur Mainline and the Trans-Siberian railway, International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), improvement of infrastructure of the Western Europe-Western China International Transit Corridor, the Caspian and the Black Sea regions, and the Northern Sea Route, creation of development zones and economic corridors in the region including the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor.

‘European States Pursue An Aggressive Policy Toward Russia’

In the backdrop of the raging war with Ukraine, which was started by Russia in February 2022 and which has rattled Europe and the US, Moscow said Europe’s policy towards it is “aggressive”.

“Most European states pursue an aggressive policy toward Russia aimed at creating threats to the security and sovereignty of the Russian Federation, gaining unilateral economic advantages, undermining domestic political stability and eroding traditional Russian spiritual and moral values, and creating obstacles to Russia's cooperation with allies and partners,” it said.

The document noted that Russia intends to “reducing and neutralizing threats to security, territorial integrity, sovereignty, traditional spiritual and moral values, and socio-economic development of Russia, its allies and partners from unfriendly European states, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union (EU) and the Council of Europe”.

‘Peaceful Coexistence With The US’

Interestingly, despite soaring tensions between Washington and Moscow, the document spoke about “maintaining strategic parity” and having a “peaceful coexistence” with the United States.

“The Russian Federation is interested in maintaining strategic parity, peaceful coexistence with the United States, and the establishment of a balance of interests between Russia and the United States, taking into account their status as major nuclear powers and special responsibility for strategic stability and international security in general,” it said.

It added: “The prospects of forming such a model of U.S.-Russian relations depend on the extent to which the United States is ready to abandon its policy of power-domination and revise its anti-Russian course in favour of interaction with Russia on the basis of the principles of sovereign equality, mutual benefit, and respect for each other's interests.”