Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s opening remarks during talks with Minister of External Affairs of India Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, New Delhi, April 1, 2022

Mr Minister,

Thank you very much, it’s really a pleasure to have another meeting with our friends.

Friendship is the key word to describe the history of our relations. Our relations were very sustainable during many difficult times in the past and I don’t have the slightest doubt that our mutual respect and the search for balance of interests will prevail in our relations in the future as well.

We have been developing a specially privileged strategic partnership with New Delhi and this is one of the key priorities of the Russian foreign policy. It’s equality and mutual trust that underlie our actions on the international arena, and in the context of a multipolar world, which is being objectively shaped, as you alluded to yesterday addressing a conference in New Delhi. We are certainly interested in having the world order balanced, which makes it sustainable.

We have intensified our bilateral contacts as you said, the President [Putin] and the Prime Minister [Modi] are in regular touch with each other, and I will report to the President about my negotiations here. He sends, by the way, his best regards to Prime Minister Modi and I will appreciate an opportunity to deliver this message personally.

President Putin paid an official visit in December 2021, and it was a very useful summit, as well as the two plus two meeting, which preceded the meeting of the leaders, Ministers of Defence and Ministers of Foreign Affairs. Now as far as I understand, the respective members of our governments are discussing the dates for the next meeting of the Governmental Commission on Economic Cooperation.

We continue to implement projects in the areas of energy, science and technology, outer space, the pharmaceutical industry, and of course we cooperated and continue to cooperate in the efforts to fight the coronavirus infection.

Indeed, as you mentioned, these days our Western colleagues would like to reduce any meaningful international issue to the crisis in Ukraine. You know our position. We do not hide anything and we appreciate it that India is taking this situation in the entirety of facts, not just in a one-sided way.

I look forward to our discussions and thank you very much for your hospitality once again.