Bhubaneswar: The jubilation around Donald Trump has gone sour. The US has slapped a 50% tariff on India. So India firms up an old friend, Russia. Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar is in Moscow. This is the second high level visit this month. National security advisor Ajit Doval had visited before two weeks to Russia.
The foreign minister will be in Moscow for three days. First visited a war memorial in Russian capital and paid tribute to Russian fallen soldiers in world war II. Then he co-chaired an inter-government commission. It is bilateral meeting to discuss crucial issues like trade, economy and science. He also met Russia’s deputy prime minister. Jaishankar will be meeting his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.
This is not a random meeting but there is a lead up and a follow up. The lead up is the tensions between India and the US. As Trump has slapped secondary tariffs on India and his officials have accused New Delhi a funding Russia’s war.
The Russian Embassy in India held a press conference on 21 August and made three crucial points:
1- Russia is open to absorb Indian exports. If they can not be sold in America send them to Russia
2-Russia expects the oil sells to continue amid the Trump tantrums against this oil trade between India and Russia. They also revealed their discounts for oil to India which is upto 5%.
3- Russia wants to double down on military cooperation. India and Russia are jointly upgrading India’s fleet by producing engines for the old planes together
The much anticipated visit of Vladimir Putin to India may follow up soon. Ever since the war broke out in 2022 between the Russia and Ukraine Putin has not visited India. He is expected to visit India around the end of this year.
-OdishaAge
