Russian President Vladimir Putin Thursday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, referring to him as a “true patriot”, and said India has progressed a lot under his leadership. Speaking at the Plenary Session of the 19th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow, Putin called the ‘Make in India’ initiative a “significant effort”.
“India has walked a great development path from being a British colony to its modern state. Almost 1.5 billion people and significant results that are development-yielded. It attracts general respect from everyone in the world. A lot has been done in recent years under PM Modi’s leadership. He is a true patriot of his country. And this concept of his, ‘Make in India’, is a significant effort. (India) really has progressed in its development. A great future lies ahead of it,” Putin said, according to a translation by Russian state media RT, published on Twitter by the Russian Embassy in India.
“(India) is not only the largest democracy, in a good sense of this word, but it should be proud of its growth rate, that’s the basis of its progress and development,” Putin added.
“We have special ties with India that are built on the foundation of really close allied relations for decades. We never had any outstanding issues with India, we have always supported each other and I’m positive that’s how it will remain in the future as well,” Putin said.
The Russian leader said that the economic cooperation between Delhi and Moscow is growing as well.
“Prime Minister Modi asked me to increase fertiliser supplies which is crucial for Indian agriculture and we have done that,” he said, adding that the supplies have been increased 7.6 times without going into details.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pose for a photo shaking hands prior to their talks on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Sept. 16, 2022. AP/PTI
“We continue to cooperate in the military-technical areas and PM Modi is one of those individuals in the world who is able to pursue independent foreign policy in the interest of his country, and his people without any attempts to stop him,” said Putin.
“I think countries such as India… not only do they have great future ahead of them, but they are going to have a growing role in the global policies,” he added.
Modi and Putin last met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in the Uzbekistan city of Samarkand, where Modi’s comment to Putin (‘today’s era is not an era of war’) on the prolonged Russian invasion of Ukraine had grabbed headlines and garnered support from Western allies.
