India and Russia have reiterated their shared positions on Afghanistan and agreed to step up cooperation in the region.
The two sides “agreed to coordinate our policies more closely on Afghanistan,” Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told journalists after talks in Moscow.
Afghanistan and Pakistan dominated Indo-Russian Foreign Ministry consultations on Monday with New Delhi seeking reassurances from Moscow that the two countries were on the same page on the AfPak situation, as the United States presses ahead with the accommodation of the Taliban in the Afghan power structures.
India and Russia “share similar views on the evolving situation in Afghanistan,” Ms. Rao said. “Our cooperation on Afghanistan is well institutionalised and we have reconfirmed our commitment to work jointly for peace and stability in that country.”
During her three-day visit to Moscow, Ms. Rao held talks with her Russian counterpart, First Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Denisov, and Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin.
The Russian officials reiterated Moscow's continued commitment to the “red lights on the reintegration of the Taliban that were drawn at the London conference on Afghanistan,” Ms. Rao said.
The Russian officials recalled that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had reiterated the same principles in his speech at the Kabul conference last month — the Taliban must renounce violence, stop armed struggle, accept the Afghan Constitution and break up with Al-Qaeda.
The Russian side briefed the Foreign Secretary on President Dmitry Medvedev's forthcoming quadripartite summit later this month in the Black Sea resort of Sochi with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Afghan leader Hamid Karzai and Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon.
Russian officials explained that Moscow would seek to impress upon Pakistan the need “tackle the problem of terrorism in an all-round comprehensive, rather than segmented manner,” the Foreign Secretary said.
The Russian side reiterated its strong support for India's full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. However, the regional security group is still to agree on the rules and procedures for admission of new members and to lift a temporary moratorium on SCO expansion, Ms. Rao said.
Outside the framework of Foreign Ministry consultations, Ms. Rao met with Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Sobyanin to discuss preparations for President Medvedev's visit to India later this year.
Mr. Sobyanin, who co-chairs the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission with External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, will visit India in October for the annual session of the IGC and the fourth Indo-Russian Forum on Trade and Investment.
During their meeting, Ms. Rao and Mr. Sobyanin discussed ways to triple bilateral trade to $20 billion by 2015 and expand cooperation in hydrocarbons and nuclear energy. However, Ms. Rao said the liability issue in civil nuclear cooperation with Russia was not discussed during her interactions in Moscow and would be taken up by officials of the two countries later.
