Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping are capable of solving issues between India and China, Russian President Vladimir Putin said as he expressed Moscow’s view on the four nation’s strategic grouping called ‘Quad’ on June 5, 2021.
He also added that there was no need for extra-regional power to interfere in the process.
The four nations’ strategic grouping Quad includes India, the US, Japan, and Australia. Russia is publicly critical of this grouping. His remarks came as a veiled reference to the Chinese claim that the grouping aims to contain Beijing’s influence in the strategic Indo-pacific region.
The Russian President also asserted that there were contradictions in its relationship with New Delhi and Beijing.
“Yes, I do know that there are some issues related to India-China relations but there are always a lot of issues between neighboring countries but I know the attitude of both the Prime Minister of India and also the President of China. These are very responsible people and they earnestly treat one another with the utmost respect and I believe that they will always arrive at a solution to any issue that they might face,” the Russian President said in a virtual interaction.
“But it is important that no other extra-regional power is interfering with that,” he was quoted as telling PTI in a report.
“We highly appreciate such a high level of cooperation with our Indian friends. These relations are of a strategic nature. They cover a whole range of avenues of our cooperation in economy, energy and hi-tech. In defence, and I am not just talking about purchase of Russian arms…We have very deep profound relations with India based on trust,” he said.
“we are not participating in the quad, it is not my place to give my assessment to any other country participating in any initiative because every sovereign nation has the right to decide with whom and to what extent they are building their relations. I only believe that any partnership between countries should be aimed at making friends against anyone,” he said when asked about Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s criticism of Quad as “Asian NATO.”
“We are not taking steps first – I’m talking about the steps that deteriorated our relations. It was not us who introduced sanctions against the US, it was the United States who did that on every occasion and even without grounds, just because our country exists,” he said.
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