New Delhi, India and Russia should come up with a creative and innovative outlook to face complex geo -political challenges, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday that among the growing strains in New Delhi’s relationship with Washington on the purchase of Russian crude oil.
Jaishankar commented in a meeting with Russia’s first Deputy Prime Minister Dennis Manturov in Moscow.
In its television initial comments, the Foreign Minister said that India and Russia should diversify and expand their “agenda” to diversify bilateral trade baskets and cooperate through more joint enterprises.
“To do more and separate it should be our mantra,” he said.
The comment came against the backdrop of the recession in relations between India and the US, when President Donald Trump doubled the tariff on Indian goods, including 25 percent of additional duties for India’s purchase of Russian crude oil.
The Foreign Minister reached Moscow on Tuesday on a three -day visit.
The Jaishankar-Manturov talks were held under the framework of trade, economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation of the India-Russia’s Inter-Governmental Commission.
The purpose of the meeting was to formulate the basis for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India later this year.
In detail the importance of India-Russia relations in the context of the current geopolitical upheaval, Jaishankar made specific suggestions to further strengthen the engagement, especially in the economic field.
He said, “Different work groups and sub -groups may probably take more creative and innovative attitude towards their respective agendas. The challenges generated by the large landscape we have mentioned we need to do so,” he said.
The Minister of External Affairs said that both sides should continuously diversify and expand their agenda through mutual consultation.
“This will help us tap in full potential of our business and investment relations. We should not get stuck on a beaten track,” he said
Jaishankar also asked to set up a “quantitative goal and specific deadline” to achieve more in expanding relations between the two countries.
He said, “I would urge us to set ourselves some quantitative goals and specific timelines so that we challenge ourselves to achieve more, perhaps even what we are ready to do, crosses what we are ready to do,” he said.
“Each work group and each sub-group can apply ourselves to set up the target and see what we can achieve until the next session of the IRIGC-TEC,” he said.
“For example, if you are looking at business obstacles, can we choose a certain number and create a commitment? If we have agreed for a certain offer, can we set a firm timeline for this?” He said.
Jaishankar also asked for a “coordination mechanism” between the trade platform and various working groups of IRIGC, so that a two-way flow of ideas could be ensured.
“We would prefer that IRIGC becomes even more results for more results, relevant and easily available to commercial communities on both sides,” he said.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without amending the text.
