New Delhi: Congress Member of Parliament and General Secretary in-charge of Communications, Jairam Ramesh, has highlighted the historical depth of India’s relationship with Russia, tracing its foundations to the early decades of independent India.
Ramesh said the Soviet Union was an invaluable partner in India’s development journey that began in the 1950s, contributing significantly to the establishment and expansion of key sectors including steel, heavy engineering, mining, power, oil and gas, chemicals, defence, space and nuclear industries.
He attributed an important role in building these ties to Jawaharlal Nehru’s 16-day visit to the USSR in July 1955, followed by the 20-day visit of Soviet leaders Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev to India in November–December 1955.
Ramesh also pointed to the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation, signed in New Delhi on August 9, 1971, describing it as an agreement of considerable strategic importance.
According to Ramesh, relations experienced a period of uncertainty following the break-up of the Soviet Union in December 1991, but were revived with renewed momentum in 1998 through the efforts of Yevgeny Primakov, followed subsequently by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He also highlighted the development of the BrahMos missile joint venture, saying the project, which took several years to finalise, was concluded under President Putin in cooperation with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and was later significantly expanded during the tenure of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with facilities established in New Delhi, Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram.
Ramesh argued that the India–Russia partnership has deep historical foundations dating back to the 1950s–1980s, and said these longstanding ties should be viewed in the broader context of the bilateral relationship.
Recalling another symbolic connection to this history, Ramesh noted that former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited IIT Bombay on December 22, 2010, where he saw a largely forgotten symbol of the Indo-Soviet partnership that had been established on the campus nearly five decades earlier.
He shared a photograph of the location near the PC Saxena Lecture Theatre, which he said was also part of his daily life at IIT Bombay between 1963 and 1975.