India-Russia ties are time-tested, honest and without any hidden agenda: Russia's deputy chief of mission

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The ties between India and Russia are honest, time-tested and without any hidden agenda, said Russia's deputy chief of mission to India, Roman Babushkin, while marking the 75th year of Moscow-Delhi diplomatic relations on Sunday.
"India-Russia relations are historically deep, honest and without any hidden agenda. They are time-tested, multidimensional and immune from external negative influence. The contact between India and Russia remains uninterrupted. We do not have any double standards. There lie big values in our ties and they are special," Babushkin said during a press briefing after celebrating Russia's National Day as well at the Honorary Consulate of Russia in Thiruvananthapuram.
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Earlier, Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov said that the multidimensional cooperation between India and Russia is one of the world's most elaborate ones and the countries succeeded in "building true friendship and mutual trust" exemplified by numerous proud milestones.
Marking the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Russian-Indian diplomatic relations, Alipov made these remarks in a foreword in the special edition of the Russia Digest magazine.
The remarks further coincided with the occasion of Russia's National Day, June 12, stated the Embassy of Russia in India on its website.
On the milestones achieved in the relationship between the two countries, Alipov wrote about the industrialization and power plant constructions in India with the Soviet assistance in the 1950-1960s, setting up of the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay in 1958, the groundbreaking Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation of 1971, the flight of the first Indian cosmonaut on the "Soyuz T-11" spacecraft in 1984, the Declaration of Strategic Partnership of 2000 and many more topics.
"Today's Russia-India multidimensional cooperation is one of the world's most elaborated ones with regular meetings of the two intergovernmental commissions, sector-wise ministerial, security advisors' and senior officials' dialogue, foreign office consultations and coordination in the global arena, complemented by diverse business, cultural and people-to-people contacts," he wrote.
The ambassador highlighted that Russia and India were among the first in the world to establish the practice of annual bilateral summits. The XXI Summit in December 2021 in New Delhi was held in person, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and the introduction of the "2+2" ministerial format became yet another landmark, he added.