New Delhi is one of Moscow’s main like-minded partners on global stage: Russian NSA

India and Russia have “effective and trust-based” relations, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu said at a meeting with his Indian counterpart, Ajit Doval, in St. Petersburg on Wednesday.

The key to this relationship is regular contact between the two countries’ heads of state, Shoigu affirmed.

“We highly value our specially privileged strategic partnership with India. Our relations are characterized by mutual respect, taking each other’s interests into account, and are not subject to international trends,” Shoigu said.


“New Delhi is one of Moscow’s main like-minded partners on the global stage, and our friendship has confidently stood the test of time,” the former defense minister said, according to Russian news agency TASS.

The meeting between Shoigu and Doval took place on the sidelines of a BRICS and BRICS+ high-level representatives meeting in St. Petersburg. During the talks, the Russian Security Council secretary noted that the bilateral summit between the Russian and Indian leaders held in Moscow on July 8-9 had outlined new prospects for cooperation between the two nations.

Moscow especially appreciates that Russia was chosen as the destination for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first bilateral foreign visit in his third term, Shoigu noted.

According to the Indian Embassy in Russia, during the talks the two sides “reviewed progress in bilateral cooperation and discussed important issues of mutual interest.”

Doval’s visit to Russia coincided with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s trip to Germany, where he indicated that direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are inevitable to end the ongoing conflict, and that India is ready to play a role in facilitating this process. He however said that New Delhi would not necessarily mediate the talks.