Putin hails ‘patriot’ PM Modi, says India has a ‘great future’

Calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi “a patriot” and appreciating his ‘Make in India’ initiative along with following an “independent” foreign policy, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he believes that countries like India have not only a great future, but also a growing role in international affairs.

Putin made the comments while addressing the final plenary session of the 19th meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club, a Moscow-based international framework for the leading experts from around the world.

The four-day meeting held under the theme ‘The World After Hegemony: Justice and Security for All’ brought together 111 experts, politicians, diplomats and economists from Russia and 40 foreign countries, including India, Afghanistan, Brazil, Germany, Egypt, China, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, the USA, Turkey, France, Uzbekistan, South Africa and others.

Addressing the large gathering Thursday evening, Putin stated that India has come a long way from being an English colony to its current state and that its nearly 1.5 billion people, the “remarkable results of development”, inspire both universal admiration and respect from around the world.

“Prime Minister Modi is the man, one of those people in the world, who is able to pursue an independent foreign policy in the interests of his people. Despite any attempts to restrain something, to limit something, he, you know, as an icebreaker, is moving calmly in the direction necessary for the Indian state,” he said.

The Russian President mentioned that India has made “great strides” in its development, has a “great future” and has the right to not only be proud of being the largest democracy “in the best sense of the word” but also at the pace of its development.

“A lot has been done in recent years under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi. He is definitely a patriot of his country. And his thesis ‘Make in India’ has both economic and moral significance,” said Putin.

He mentioned that Moscow shares a “special relationship” with New Delhi that has been created or built on the foundation of a very close allied relationship over many, many decades.

“India and I have never had any, I want to emphasize this, never any difficult issues, we have always only supported each other. This is what is happening now, and I am sure it will continue to be so in the future,” he said.

Putin listed that the pace of military-technical and economic cooperation along with the trade turnover as a whole continues to grow between India and Russia.

“As an example, Prime Minister Modi asked me to increase the supply of fertilizer, which is very important for Indian agriculture, and we did it. How much do you think? Deliveries of fertilizers to India have been increased by 7.6 times – not by some percentage, but by 7.6 times. The trade turnover in the sphere of purchase and sale of agricultural products has almost doubled,” said the Russian head of state.

Alleging that the US financial authorities “use the dollar as a weapon” and create problems for settlements not only for Russia but also partners countries, Putin stressed on the need to expand settlements in national currencies.

“For example, with India, we have, in my opinion, already 53 percent of the settlements in national currencies for exports, and approximately 27 percent for imports. And settlements with other countries are developing very actively. With China, settlements in Yuan and rubles are developing very actively, as well as with other countries – I won’t list them all.”

Putin said that despite the “acute internal political processes” in India, there is a consensus on cooperation with Russia, a consensus on interaction within the BRICS framework which is of “fundamental importance” for Russia.

“We are also negotiating with India on various ways of delivering our energy resources to the Indian market and with other countries. We will continue to liquefy natural gas. Our participation in the global LNG markets is still modest, but it is constantly growing. We will continue to do this. We will develop this direction, I repeat, not even in connection with today’s restrictions, but because these are the trends in the development of the world economy,” remarked the Russian President.

Calling India and China the “cradle of world civilizations”, Putin said that Russia has already reoriented its cooperation with Asian countries to a large extent.

“The interest of the Russian public in these civilizations has always been very high. By the way, schools for the study of India, China, the culture of both states, the peoples of these states, and these are also multinational states, we have a very high level of science in these areas, this has always been traditional for Russia, and we will support this in the future,” he concluded.

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