St Petersburg (Russia): India will formally become a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) within a week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said today as he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the annual bilateral summit.

Welcoming Modi, Putin said, “the most important thing is the trust and friendship in our relationship between our countries and our people.”

“I am glad to have this opportunity to meet you and discuss the whole spectrum of bilateral relations and international relations,” the Russian president told Modi.

“As far as our international cooperation goes, one thing I would like to point out, in one week, India is becoming full fledged member of the SCO,” he said.

“I would like to remind that process was launched in 2015 in Ufa, Russia. Russia has always supported this and given full assistance to it,” Putin said.

The SCO is a political, economic, and military bloc founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

“Very soon, in one week, we are going to meet in Kazakhstan (for SCO)” where India’s membership will be confirmed, he told Modi.

Reciprocating the warm welcome, Modi said that he was privileged to have been able to visit Putin’s hometown as Prime Minister.

“India, Russia friendship is very old, deep and based on trust. India and Russia have always been together on international issues,” he said.

Modi thanked Putin for his “active role” in getting India SCO membership.

“I thank you for all the initiatives taken,” he said.

Putin noted that this year Russia and India mark the 70th anniversary since establishing diplomatic relations.

“Normally, in international relations there are ups and downs. But history is witness, there have been no ups and downs in Indo-Russia relations. We have always moved forward,” Modi said.

Not just on bilateral issues, but even on international issues India and Russia have cooperated keeping the objective of Sarvajan Sukhaia, bahujan sukhay (for the welfare, happiness of all), he added.

 

India, Russia Sign Deal to Build 2 Units Of Kudankulam Nuclear Plant

 

India and Russia have signed a pact to jointly build the last two units of the Kudankulam nuclear reactor. Making the announcement during his joint statement with President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Narendra Modi underscored the seven-decade India-Russia ties, which he said, has stood the “test of time”. PM Modi, who also addressed an elite group of Russian industry leaders, said defence should be a key area in Indo-Russian collaboration and the government had approved a policy to allow Indian companies to manufacture defence equipment with foreign players. The Prime Minister is on a three-day tour to St Petersburg, where he had bilateral meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his team.

 

 

Sl.No.	Title of MoUs/Agreement	Indian signatory	Russian Signatory
1.	The program of cultural exchanges between the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of India for 2017-2019.	Ambassador Pankaj Saran	Vladimir Medinskyii Minister for Culture
2.	The General Framework Agreement for the construction of the third stage of the Kudankulam NPP (KK5 & KK6) along with the Credit Protocol	Shri Satish Kumar Sharma, Chairman NPCIL	Mr Alexei Likhachev, CEO ROSATOM
3.	Agreement between the Federal Service for Intellectual Property (Rospatent) and the Council of India on Scientific and Industrial Research on granting access to Rospatent experts to the Indian Digital Library of Traditional Knowledge (TKDL)	Ambassador Pankaj Saran	Mr Grigory Ivliev Head of ROSPATENT
4.	The contract between JSC «Russian Railways» and the Ministry of Railways of the Republic of India on the preparation of the justification for the implementation of the high-speed service at the Nagpur-Secunderabad section	Ambassador Pankaj Saran	Oleg BeloserovPresident of Russian Railways
5.	Memorandum of cooperation between ALROSA Joint Stock Company (Public Joint Stock Company) and the Council for the Promotion of the Export of Precious Stones and Jewellery of India	Shri Praveen Shankar Pandya,Chairman,Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC)	Mr Sergei IvanovPresident ALROSA