Russia has reiterated its position that only concrete steps by Islamabad to crack down on terrorist organisations will pave the way for resumption of dialogue with neighbour India.
Pakistan's concrete measures as promised to end trans-border terrorism would help defuse tension in South Asia and open the doors for resumption of dialogue with India, said Gleb Ivashentsev, director of the third Asia department of the Russian foreign ministry.
Mr Ivashentsev was speaking at a seminar organised by the Jawaharlal Nehru Cultural Centre (JNCC) at Moscow.
Stressing that Russia and India, victims of international terrorism, have identical views on the issue of combating the “grave global menace,” Mr Ivashentsev said two conventions moved by Russia and India at the UN, in order to fight the scourge of international terrorism and nuclear terrorism, should be approved without any further delay.
“Both our countries, historically linked with Central Asia, have a strong stake m that region and our common approach to the problem helped resolve the Afghan tangle, which wets a headache as terrorists trained in Afghanistan were wrecking havoc in Chechnya and Kashmir.” Talking about the Indo-Russian strategic partnership, Mr Ivashentsev said cooperation in the nuclear energy sector, civil aviation, cargo movement through the North-South corridor and the qualitatively new level of defence cooperation would strengthen the partnership.
Regretting that trade and economic relations between the two countries did not correspond to their potential, the Russian envoy made a case for harnessing the potential of the private sectors in both countries to provide a boost to ties in this sphere.
Mr Ivashentsev also spoke of setting up the proposed Indo-Russian trade council to bolster ties in this sector.
He lauded the Indian government's decision to grant market economy status to Russia and remove the anti-dumping regulations applied against the country's goods
Indian ambassador K. Raghunath said at the seminar that Indo-Russian relations are forward looking, dynamic and characterised by stability, continuity and understanding of each other's concerns.
He said the structure of bilateral trade had to be changed in order to optimise Indo-Russian relations. Trade is presently dominated by export of traditional goods from India and import of mainly fertilizer, metal, and newsprint from Russia.
Bilateral cooperation in the framework
of the ongoing energy security dialogue and under the integrated long-term
programme (ILTP) would provide new content to trade and economic ties,
Mr Raghunath said. (IANS)