One fruitful outcome of talks between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin was that the two countries have decided to embark on a new project to cooperate in a new area: Afghanistan. For the first time, the two countries have agreed to take in hand a joint project – possibly in the development sector – in Afghanistan. It may be recalled that at Wuhan, Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had also agreed to work on a project in Afghanistan. There was a slight difference. Modi proposed the Indo-Russian project and Putin readily agreed. But at Wuhan, it was Xi Jinping who mooted the idea. Russia has been urging, particularly the US to talk to the Taliban to prevent a prolonged sanguinary war. Russia has been known to be getting closer to Pakistan in the recent past. India takes a different attitude and in its pursuit of countering terrorism, it made a veiled reference to Pakistan supporting terrorists all over the world. Moscow and Beijing have been stressing the fact that Pakistan is also a victim of terrorism. India pointedly makes a distinction between different types of victims. Pakistan becoming a victim is of its own making and it does not hesitate to support state sponsored terrorism directed against India.
It has been pointed out that the adverse impact of US sanctions on Russia did not figure in the discussion between Modi and Putin with regard to New Delhi’s proposed defence cooperation with Moscow. The issues related to defence, nuclear and trade areas are expected to be brought up at the summit between India and Russia later this year. The recently concluded talks were of an informal nature but showed that the two leaders share a lot of chemistry. The comfort level between the two countries was particularly highlighted.