India-Russia defence ties deepen even as Moscow hails ‘highest’ level of Beijing relations

India set to build more Russian weapons as both seek to deepen ties and work on Afghanistan’s peace process, said foreign ministers of both nations in New Delhi

Joint arms production likely to irk US, and comes as Moscow rules out military alliance with Beijing even as Russia-China ties are ‘at highest at summit level’

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with his counterpart S. Jaishankar. Photo: Reuters

Published: 11:08pm, 6 Apr 2021Updated: 1:24am, 7 Apr 2021

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday ruled out a military alliance with China, saying such a discussion was not on the table even as he described Moscow-Beijing bilateral ties as being “the highest in history at the summit level”.

Lavrov was speaking at a joint press conference with his Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar after their meeting in New Delhi, during which both had discussed closer military cooperation and the peace process in Afghanistan, where Russia is trying to bring together all stakeholders both within and around the war-torn country for peace and stability.

“Russia-China relations are the highest in history at summit level, but we are not discussing a military alliance. We have also heard of pro-military alliances being promoted as Middle East-Nato or Asian-Nato,” Lavrov said in response to a journalist’s question.

“We believe it is counterproductive. We are for inclusive cooperation that is for something, not against somebody.”

Speculation that Beijing and Moscow could develop a united front against Nato had emerged after Russian leader Vladimir Putin last October said he would not “rule out” a possible pact with China. But China’s defence ministry last month said it had no plans to do so.

Lavrov, who arrived in India on Monday on a two-day visit, spoke with Jaishankar on bilateral military cooperation, including the production of “state-of-the-art” weapons manufacturing by Russia in India.

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