India’s External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar, and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, met at a beach resort in Benaulim, Goa, to review their “special and privileged strategic partnership”. The hour-long meeting occurred on the sidelines of a conclave of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). The two foreign ministers discussed the Ukraine crisis, which has led to frosty relations between Russia and the West. They also praised the dynamics of cooperation in key areas of their partnership. The Russian readout said the two sides agreed to continue working towards building a “fair multipolar system of interstate relations”.
India and Russia have been increasing their economic engagement in recent years, largely due to India’s procurement of discounted Russian oil. India has been pressing Russia to address the trade imbalance that is in favour of Moscow.
The SCO is an influential economic and security bloc that was founded in Shanghai in 2001 by the presidents of Russia, China, the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. India and Pakistan became permanent members in 2017. India has shown a keen interest in deepening security-related cooperation within the SCO member nations and its Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS).
The meeting did not provide any official information on whether trade-related issues were discussed, nor did it offer any comment on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
