India and Russia have both agreed to help each other in facilitating any requirement of medicines and medical equipment to deal with the global pandemic COVID-19.
Confirming this to Financial Express Online, sources said that “This decision was taken during a telephone call between Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov.”
The two top officials during call discussed the evolving situation relating to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the efforts undertaken by both countries to contain and combat the virus. According to reports, COVID-19 globally has claimed around 88,000 people and more than 15 lakh have been identified as infected in 190 countries across the globe. Out of this, in Russia there have been 76 deaths and over 10,000 cases of the infection and the number of deaths in India is 166 and positive cases of the virus is over 5,730.
Today’s call comes close on the heels of a telephone conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 25.
Sources said that Shringla also enquired about the well being of the 15,000 India students in that country and his counterpart expressed his gratitude to the Indian government for facilitating the evacuation of Russia nationals who were stranded here due to flights being cancelled.
“Referring to the Russian chairmanship of BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Morgulov informed Shringla of various preparatory meetings which would continue to take place through video conferencing in the coming days,” sources said.
The BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) represents over 3.6 billion people, or half of the world population and have a combined GDP of $16.6 trillion.
SCO is considered to be a powerful grouping which represents around 42 per cent of the world’s population and 20 per cent of the global GDP.
What is not clear is if Russia is among the countries who have reached out to India for the supply of the anti-malaria drug Hydroxychloroquine.
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Says Ambassador Anil Trigunayat, “India and Russia enjoy a special and privileged partnership which is diversified across the expanding spectrum of cooperation. Disaster management and mutual assistance is one among them. PM Modi and President Putin have been regularly meeting on annual bilateral summits, G20 and SCO as well as BRICS. In addition, the two leaders meet in informal summits as and when required that attests to the trust that has been established both at the personal and official level.”
Adding, “Russians have a well-developed disaster management system and strategy and already they have assisted Italians, the US-China and others in combating the COVID- 19. India is also extending diverse assistance in this regard and could jointly strategize to fight the Coronavirus in our own countries and globally.”
According to Prof Rajesh Rajagopalan, School of International Studies, JNU, “India does have close ties with Russia that it wants to maintain. India also wants to maintain its strategic options, though considering Russia’s increasing dependence on China; India also needs to be much more cautious than it has been of Russia. For its own reason, Russia has become essentially a mouthpiece for Beijing, echoing its policies and rhetoric.”
“ We see this, for example, on the issue of the Indo-Pacific, which Russia has opposed. New Delhi needs to understand that while keeping its options open, Russia today has different imperatives and India needs to be careful,” Rajagopalan opines.
