Conference “The New Contours of Russian-Indian Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership”

“Discussion of Russian-Indian relations should proceed from specific interests of the two countries. An expert-level dialog on global issues seems useful but the focus should be on key issues relevant for strategic and tactical interests of Russia and India.”
The above statement presents the stance presented by RIAC Program Director Ivan Timofeyev at conference “The New Contours of Russian-Indian Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership” opened at MGIMO-University on May 21. On the Indian side, the organizer is the Indian Council of World Affairs, India's oldest think tank and long-time MGIMO partner. The Conference is to peak by the visit of the Indian delegation to RIAC to discuss its working paper “Postulates on Russia-India Relations”.

“Discussion of Russian-Indian relations should proceed from specific interests of the two countries. An expert-level dialog on global issues seems useful but the focus should be on key issues relevant for strategic and tactical interests of Russia and India.”

The above statement presents the stance presented by RIAC Program Director Ivan Timofeyev at conference “The New Contours of Russian-Indian Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership” opened at MGIMO-University on May 21. On the Indian side, the organizer is the Indian Council of World Affairs, India's oldest think tank and long-time MGIMO partner. The Conference is to peak by the visit of the Indian delegation to RIAC to discuss its working paper “Postulates on Russia-India Relations”.

Dr. Timofeyev addressed the first session with a review of Russian and Indian interests in the global context, including such trends as the revolution in military affairs, growing threats to food security, energy challenges, intensified migration processes, and internationalization in science and education.

Head of Indian delegation Ambassador Rajiv Bhatia underlined that the Russian-Indian dialog mostly neglects the migration problem, although the subject is critical and deserves more attention, specifically migration of skilled labor from India. MGIMO Rector Anatoly Torkunov said that migration is likely to endow the bilateral dialog with a new dimension.

Notably, on May 17, RIAC President Igor Ivanov and Head of Federal Migration Service Konstantin Romodanovsky presented fundamental three-volume collection “Migration in Russia. 2000-2012” and reference book “Migration Field in Russia”, a result of the two-year cooperation of the two organizations. The Indian delegation took a great interest to both editions.