India, Russia Launch Track 1.5 Dialogue to Push Greater Eurasian Partnership

NEW DELHI: The maiden Ganga Volga Dialogue (Track 1.5) held in Delhi on 22 January was conceptualized during the October 2018 India-Russia Summit between President Putin and Prime Minister Modi.

Inaugurated by India’s Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan, the Dialogue organised by Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Research Foundation seeks to provide an interface between the civilizations of India and Russia.

The Minister prioritized the need for the Dialogue to contribute to greater people-to-people exchanges between India and Russia.The Dialogue should identify a Roadmap for creating new synergies between India and Russia.

The Russian Ambassador to India Nikolay Kudashev credited India’s Prime Minister with the idea of the Dialogue, which was meant to foster cooperation in a period of worsening and confrontational international relations. For Russia, the Dialogue provided an opportunity to engage India in the development of the idea of “Greater Eurasia”, which provided the pivot to Asia for Russia’s strategic policies.

The dominant theme of the discussions was Connectivity. Apart from the well-known connectivity proposals to link Russia and India like the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC), the concept of Connectivity also included greater academic and economic exchanges, as well as Digital Connectivity. Participants at the meeting provided ideas on how to expand India-Russia exchanges in the areas of education, culture, economy, entrepreneurship, strategic thought, innovation, media, tourism, healthcare, manufacturing and technology.

Placing these proposals in the strategic context, the Dialogue discussed the impact of a rapidly changing international situation on India-Russia relations. Special emphasis was placed on implementing the decisions agreed to at the 20th India-Russia Summit held in Vladivostok in September 2019, including the utilization of the $1 billion Line of Credit extended by India for development of Russia’s Far East by Indian companies.

It was emphasized that the development of strategic relations with other major powers (like India with the United States or Russia with China) had not impacted on the core interests of the special and privileged strategic partnership between India and Russia. Even in the area of defence trade, statistics showed that India-Russia defence trade had maintained its upward momentum despite some concerns on the growth of India-United States defence trade on the India-Russia defence relationship.

Similarly, the development of relations between India in the Quad (with the United States, Japan and Australia) and between India and the CSTO (in Greater Eurasia) were placed in context with India’s status of not belonging to any military alliance. It was felt that the enhancement of India-Russia economic and trade relations would provide substance to the cooperation between India and Russia in Greater Eurasia.

The role of the two major river systems of the Ganga and Volga in providing the framework for a host of activities including in culture and civilization, development of economic activity using riverine systems, and connecting people from the two river basins was highlighted.

The significance of the focus on water, and on maritime issues, was put in the context of the political priorities of India and Russia. This included cooperation in the framework of India’s SAGAR Indian Ocean policy, environmental issues including water conservation and management, and climate change. Discussions on the Indo-Pacific endorsed the inclusive framework of cooperation in the Indian and Pacific Oceans contained in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the Shangri-La Dialogue in June 2018, and the possible role of Russia as a partner of India in the Indian Ocean, including in developing the Blue Economy.

The recommendation of the Dialogue for the leaders of India and Russia was to institutionalize the process, so that the Ganga Volga Dialogue could become a Track 1.5 platform for enhancing the special and privileged strategic partnership between India and Russia.

Source: ET