Diplomatist Magazine Diplomatist October 2019 | Page 6
India & Russia
A Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership
Dr Yulia Boguslavskaya*
I
ndia and Russia offi cially proclaimed the
beginning of their strategic partnership
in October 2000, when the corresponding
declaration was signed by Russia’s newly
elected president Vladimir Putin and India`s
then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Both
sides recognized their special responsibility in
world aff airs (‘by the virtue of being among
the largest multiethnic multilingual and
multireligious States’) and shared a common
view on how the system of international
relations should be organized, i.e. the conviction
that it was necessary ‘to build a multipolar
global structure based on sovereign equality
of all states and peoples, democratic values
and justice’, as it was stated in the text of the
Declaration. The authors tried to clarify the
concept of ‘strategic partnership’, stipulating
that it would include enhanced cooperation
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in the following fields: political, trade and
economy, defence, science and technology,
culture, countering terrorism, separatism,
organised crime, illegal traffi cking in narcotics,
etc. India-Russia strategic partnership was not a
politico-military alliance and was not directed
against any other state.
The signing of the Declaration on strategic
partnership was considered a major initiative
in bilateral relations after the end of the Cold
war intended to intensify cooperation between
India and Russia. The institutional mechanism
of relations was designed, containing annual
summits, regular bilateral political and
foreign offi ce consultations and joint inter-
governmental commissions.
During the visit of Russia`s then President
Dmitry Medvedev to New Delhi in December
2010 after the review of the previous decade of