Oleg Avdeev, Consul General of Russian Consulate General in South India, on Wednesday said the attempts of the U.S. and its allies to “isolate Russia internationally” was an absurd idea since the world was much more complicated than the Americans think. Their plans were doomed to fail, he said.
Speaking at a roundtable, organised to mark the 75th Anniversary of Russian-Indian Diplomatic Relations by the Consulate-General of the Russian Federation, South India and Indo-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industries, he said despite tremendous combined pressure from the West, India chose to retain strategic autonomy in its relationship with Russia.
Mutual commitment
It is evident India and other like-minded countries were not going to yield to Western pressure. Recently, during the meetings of the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, the two sides reiterated their mutual commitment to go ahead with further development of the bilateral relations, focusing on their adaptation to a new reality.
“At present, we are involved in expanding Ruble-Rupee scheme and adjusting our banking cooperation and payment systems, in order to ensure that the pragmatic and mutually beneficial economic partnership remains uninterrupted,” he said.
A. Sivathanu Pillai, former distinguished scientist of DRDO, considered the father of the BrahMos missile programme, who spoke about the long-standing relations between India and Russia, said the erstwhile Soviet Union had recognised India in April 1947, even before Independence.
Venkatachalam Murugan, head of Branch Secretariat, Ministry of External Affairs; P. Thangappan, secretary general, Indo-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industries; and industrialists V.M. Lakshminarayanan and Gem Veeramani, and V. Kumaresan, treasurer, Dravidar Kazhagam, participated.
