Official sources here confirmed to TOI that Russia had formally shared cooperation modalities with India on the vaccine and that the Indian government was examining the details.
“As far as we know, after some necessary technical steps, the vaccine would be ready to be used widely, even abroad,” Kudashev said.
The issue is also likely to come up during Foreign Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Moscow this week. Kudashev also said, however, that Russia hoped to work with India to achieve a “just and multipolar” world order at a time when some countries were playing “geopolitical games” despite the pandemic and creating “exclusive blocs behind closed doors.” .
This is significant as India, in the face of growing Chinese military adventurism, seeks to strengthen its Indo-Pacific and Quad policies. In fact, the government announced last week that it will hold the second Quad ministerial meeting this year in India.
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Despite its major military exercise with India in the Andamans, and also its recent discussions with India and Japan for a trilateral mechanism, Moscow continues to abhor even the term Indo-Pacific, calling it a US-led initiative aimed at containing Beijing. . However, India has tried to address some of these doubts by emphasizing in bilateral meetings that the Indo-Pacific is a free, open, transparent and inclusive concept with ASEAN at its center and that it does not exclude any country.
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“Unfortunately we have to admit that despite the pandemic some countries continue to play geopolitical games and unilateral extraterritorial sanctions (sic), trying to create exclusive blocks behind closed doors, politicizing international institutions such as the UN, OPCW, WHO and others. Such a policy Obviously , mistrust, instability and uncertainty increase, distancing us from vital solutions, “Kudashev said at a conference.
Kudashev said that there was a lack of goodwill and a constructive approach and that this had led to greater possibilities of confrontation, arms race and global disorder.
“We hope to further expand our cooperation with India and other friendly countries to avoid such scenarios (and) move towards a just and equal multipolar world order, the democratization of global governance, collective solutions to global and regional problems, and a close coordination for this purpose in various multilateral institutions, “said Kudashev, adding that Defense Minister Rajnath Singh’s two visits to Moscow this year, and the next one by Jaishankar, were of great importance for the same reason.
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