PrintFriendlyWhere the dawn comes first in the whole world, where the victory over the nature of the unstoppable struggle of our Russian friends has become the inspiration for the whole world and where new stories of human development are being written in the 21st century.
I am extremely happy to have come to such a great place-Vladivostok. And it has been made possible on the invitation of my dear friend President Putin. For this I thank from my heart my friend – President Putin.The invitation, which gave me the privilege of being the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Vladivostok. I am grateful to President Putin, my friend for this.
And it is a pleasant historical coincidence that President Putin and I have participated in the 20th Annual Summit between India and Russia.
In the year 2001, when the Indo-Russian summit took place in Russia for the first time, my friend Putin was the President of Russia, and I was in the delegation of India with Atal Ji, the then Prime Minister and I was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. During the political journey of President Putin and me, the friendship and cooperation between the two countries has grown rapidly and gone a long way.
During this time, our Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership has not only served the strategic interests of our countries, rather, we have linked it with the development of people and their direct benefits.
President Putin and me have taken this relationship to new heights of cooperation through trust and participation. And its achievements have brought not only quantitative but qualitative changes also.
First, we have brought co-operation out of the realm of the people and added the immense energy of the private industry. Today we have dozens of business agreements.
Even in the strategic areas like defense, today’sagreement on the manufacturing of spare parts of Russian equipment by Joint Ventures of both the countries in India will promote the industry.
This agreement and the joint venture of the AK-203 earlier this year are steps that are giving our defense cooperation a solid foundation of co-manufacturing outside the limited environment of Buyer-Seller. Increasing localization of Nuclear Plants in collaboration with Russia in India is also developing a genuine partnership between us in this field. Second, we are moving our relations beyond the capitals to the states of India and the regions of Russia outside the capitals.
This is not surprising because on the one hand I have been the Chief Minister of Gujarat for a long timeand President Putin is also aware of capabilities and potential of Russia’s territories.
Therefore, it is natural that he conceived the Eastern Economic Forum and understood the importance of connecting a diverse country like India with it. No matter how muchyou appreciate it, less it is.