P S Raghavan, who reached Moscow early this morning (13 January) to take charge as the next Indian ambassador to Russia, has an onerous task on hand. Russia is a prime focus country for India. The importance of Russia, a country with which India has traditionally had a very close and strategic partnership for well over four decades, has been accentuated even further for India in the backdrop of recent tensions between India and the United States.
Raghavan, the 1979 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, has been hand-picked by the Ministry of External Affairs for this sensitive job at a crucial time in Indo-Russian relations when a number of contentious issues demand early resolution. He is taking over at a time when several thorny issues remain unresolved despite very warm political relations between India and Russia. Bilateral trade between the two nations, at $ 12 billion, is well below its true potential. Key sources well versed with the dynamics of Indo-Russian relations have told this writer that Raghavan’s immediate task will be four-fold: (i) Removing glitches from big-ticket joint defence projects such as the BrahMos missiles and Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft; (ii) Resolving the ongoing impasse over the 3rd and 4th units of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant; (iii) Diversifying Indo-Russian cooperation in newer areas and giving a boost to cooperation and joint projects in areas such as fertilizers, agriculture, railways and pharmaceuticals; (iv) Roping in private sector on both sides to give a fillip to bilateral trade and to find newer areas of investment.
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/blogs/defence-projects-n-plants-indias-new-envoy-to-russia-has-a-huge-task-ahead-1336213.html?utm_source=ref_article
Raghavan, the 1979 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, has been hand-picked by the Ministry of External Affairs for this sensitive job at a crucial time in Indo-Russian relations when a number of contentious issues demand early resolution. He is taking over at a time when several thorny issues remain unresolved despite very warm political relations between India and Russia. Bilateral trade between the two nations, at $ 12 billion, is well below its true potential. Key sources well versed with the dynamics of Indo-Russian relations have told this writer that Raghavan’s immediate task will be four-fold: (i) Removing glitches from big-ticket joint defence projects such as the BrahMos missiles and Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft; (ii) Resolving the ongoing impasse over the 3rd and 4th units of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant; (iii) Diversifying Indo-Russian cooperation in newer areas and giving a boost to cooperation and joint projects in areas such as fertilizers, agriculture, railways and pharmaceuticals; (iv) Roping in private sector on both sides to give a fillip to bilateral trade and to find newer areas of investment.
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/blogs/defence-projects-n-plants-indias-new-envoy-to-russia-has-a-huge-task-ahead-1336213.html?utm_source=ref_article
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