“India-Russia relations are characterised by a very high degree of continuity and mutual understanding”

(Interview by Yulia NOVITSKAYA and Vanessa SEVIDOVA, correspondents for New Eastern Outlook)

On Monday, April 21, 2025, His Excellency Mr Vinay Kumar, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of India to the Russian Federation, visited the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

New Eastern Outlook had the chance to ask His Excellency a few questions before he was shown around the Centre for Indian Studies of the Institute and sat down for a friendly talk with leading Russian Indologists about Indian-Russian cooperation in the field of education and academia.

What I like most is the warmth of the Russian people, this I value the most.

Your Excellency, in 2025, Russia and India are celebrating the 25^th anniversary of bilateral strategic partnership. Last year, in 2024, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with our President Vladimir Putin twice in Russia, although there have been more than 20 such meetings in total. It is expected that Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay an official visit to your country. How would you evaluate the current level of Russian-Indian relations, and which issues are highest on the agenda of our two countries?

Thank you, it is an important point you mentioned. India-Russia relations are characterised by a very high degree of continuity and mutual understanding, and this cuts across the domestic political spectrum. Last year there was a survey in India conducted by the Council of Europe and nearly 80% of the Indian population – of those who participated in this survey – said that Russia was either an ally or a friend.

This is widely accepted in India and people see in Russia a great friend, a friend which always came to India’s help, assisted in times of difficulties. There is commitment to maintain that relationship between the two countries. And that you see in the strategic partnership, which was signed a quarter of a century back.

At present, as the world is changing, we continue a very extensive dialogue between our two countries, different departments of the government, and also academics, like the fact that we are sitting here. We had just last month a very big conference on the future of India-Russia relations, where a large number of experts from India and from Russia participated. I am very confident that five years from now, ten years from now, we will have more trade, more investment between our two countries and more interaction of the people in general taking place.

A question about BRICS. Recently, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that “India fully supports the expansion of BRICS and we welcome moving forward with consensus on this”. At the October BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, 13 new countries became BRICS partners. What does India expect from the accession of new members to the organisation?

You know, the expansion of BRICS membership, both in terms of inviting new members and also the partner countries – we also accepted this year, Indonesia as a full member – it gives dynamism to the Global South. Their voice is being heard by an important group of countries, and they have commonalities of interest in economic cooperation. So that is the biggest strength of BRICS, that we see an important voice for Global South, which will play a very important role in economic cooperation in the new world that is emerging.

In July, the SCO Summit was held in Astana in Kazakhstan, which took over the chairmanship from New Delhi. Iran joined the SCO at the New Delhi Summit and Belarus joined in Astana. How do you see the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s further expansion given that a number of applications seeking to join the organisation, for example Bangladesh and Laos, or upgrade their status, like Cambodia, have already been submitted?

This is again an important organisation, and India has been a member for several years now. We support the further deepening of cooperation, particularly on the basis of the very well-established principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity of states.

In the fight, against the menace of terrorism, including cross-border terrorism, all these countries face the threat. And we support cooperation in that sphere, and also in larger sectoral cooperation within SCO. Cooperation of SCO with the neighbouring, bordering states is welcome. So on the basis of consensus, which both BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, we support continuation and deepening of cooperation.

Your Excellency, a question about the Russia-India-China format. The Russian president has repeatedly said that the RIC format may become an effective addition to our country’s regular bilateral cooperation, as well as for BRICS and the SCO. How would you assess the prospects for this format?

You know, this is not a new format. In fact, this predates BRICS. Our Prime Minister of India and the President of China had a meeting in Kazan. So we are talking bilaterally with China, and that’s what we would prefer for the time being.

What do you like about Russia? This is our traditional question, Your Excellency, what do you like most about Russia, and which places do you like to visit? What is your Russia? How do you see Russia?

That is very difficult to answer. Because I like so much in Russia: the city, the people, Russian literature, Russian novels, Russian music, Russian theatres, ballet, the museums, the architecture. I like Moscow, I like Lake Baikal. What I like most is the warmth of the Russian people, this I value the most.

Yuliya Novitskaya, April 30, 2025