Countries should be flexible to adjust to India's objections on BRI: Russian Senator

Russia will not be jealous of India’s growing ties with the United States, senator Konstantin Kosachev, head of Russia’s senate committee on foreign relations, told ET, but said in the same breath that India should not be jealous of Russia’s growing ties with China either.

Kosachev said in an exclusive interview that Russia is helping address differences between India and China, and suggested that if India has objection to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), countries (probable reference to China) should be flexible and cautious to address that.

“India is today a global player and understandably a centre of attraction. Indo-Russian ties are working well enough. Having said that expanding US sanctions on Russia can impact Indo-Russian defence partnership. Russia is hopeful that India, like Germany, France, Italy and Austria, would make some public mention against US sanctions,” Kosachev said.


“Difficult and dangerous situations are arising out of sanctions. Such sanctions which impact Russia’s trade with other countries are contradiction of WTO and free trade,” he said.

The senior Russian politician said that US-Russia ties are hostage to internal political schisms within America. “President Trump’s outreach has been limited by US Congressmen... USA and Russia could have cooperated more in West Asia and Asia-Pacific. If the Iranian nuclear deal falls through, then negotiations with North Korea will be all the more difficult,” he said.

Kosachev was in India for the third edition of the Raisina Dialogue and was part of the panel on Tuesday with foreign secretary S Jaishankar. Led by Kosachev and Shashi Tharoor, chairman of joint standing committee on external affairs, India and Russia plan to hold a formal meet of two parliamentary foreign relations committees later this year.

Referring to Indo-Russian bilateral cooperation at various multilateral forums including BRICS, RIC, SCO and Eurasian Economic Union, Kosachev said that India and Russia will be expanding their cooperation at the G20 platform.

The Russian senator said he hoped that India would enhance its presence in the big Eurasian space and that the International North-South Transportation Corridor or INSTC could join existing corridors in Eurasia. “If India has objection to any part to any corridor (read BRI) then countries should be flexible and cautious to address Delhi’s concerns,” he said.

Kosachev expressed disappointment over the fact that a global coalition in the fight against ISIS is missing. “We must guard against growth of radicalisation which leads to extremism and that leads to terrorism,” he said.