Appreciate Russia's support to India during COVID second wave: S Jaishankar in Moscow

"I would like to right at the start express my appreciation for the support we got from Russia during the second wave of the Covid pandemic this year," Jaishankar said who arrived in Moscow on Thursday.

The statement was released after the India foreign minister met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov as well as Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov.

During his address, Jaishankar said: "There were four consignments which were flown-in on a very expedited basis by the Russian Government and of course as you’ve also heard now India has become a partner of Russia in the production and use of the Sputnik V vaccine and we believe that this is not only good for the two of us but it has positive implication for the rest of the world."

Jaishankar said India's relationship with Russia is a contribution to global peace, security and stability.

"I think what makes our working together so natural and comfortable is our belief in a multipolar global order. We consider that to be a reflection of a very natural and inevitable process of evolution of inter-state relations in the 21st century," he said.

"Now much of our talks, especially the bilateral side of it, was to review the progress in different dimensions of our very broad ranging cooperation. A new dimension that has been added to our relationship of course is the agreement to hold the 2+2 Dialogue of Foreign and Defence Ministers," he said.

Speaking on India's cooperation with Russia on nuclear, space, energy and defence sectors, Jaishankar said: "The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant project is on track and you heard Foreign Minister Lavrov tell you that the concrete first pour for Unit 5 has taken place. Space again has both practical and I would say symbolic importance for our relationship."

"The energy cooperation between us has grown very significantly in the last few years and we see that today reflected both in new potential investments and long term commitments which we have agreed to in the field of oil and gas," he said.

"Our defence military technical cooperation but I would say even industrial collaboration today has been strengthened by Russian interest in Make in India programme, which is very visible," Jaishankar added.