Russian ambassador to India Denis Alipov said on Monday that Moscow was looking to diversify relations with India while also admitting that economic ties had come under stress because of “tectonic geopolitics shifts” and the “belligerent” attitude of the US-led West which, he said, had disrupted global financial mechanisms. He also accused the US of exploiting what he described as contradictions between India and China and said Moscow would like to see normalisation of Sino-Indian ties.
While Alipov said a weak Pakistan was not in the interest of the region, including India, he later clarified that he meant a “destabilised” Pakistan could not be in the interest of any country. He added that Moscow wanted to expand economic engagement with Pakistan.
He said Russia wanted to further diversify its relations with India and that bilateral ties were not aimed against anyone but were for meeting the core aspirations of the two nations.
“Today, however, our ties are under stress as we face tectonic geopolitical shifts that have been under way for quite some time, but accelerated last year by crossing of the red lines in Europe; not by us, but by the so-called collective West led by the US,” he said.
“When I spoke about stress, I specifically meant economic relations. The sanctions that interfered… they disrupted the transaction mechanisms and the logistics mechanisms,” he said.
Alipov said Russia would like to see normalisation of India-China relations and that it would hugely benefit the whole world’s security, not only Asian security.
“We understand there are very serious impediments to that, a very serious border problem between the two countries,” he said, adding, “I am not going to suggest what India or China should do… This is entirely a bilateral matter between India and China and we don’t interfere with that.”
Source : Times Of India
