Underlining the “pressure over India” and the need to “continue and enlarge the volume of our bilateral business” and “not letting anyone interfere in that”, the Kremlin said Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will discuss a labour mobility pact and the supply of S-400 air defence systems and the Sukhoi-57 fighter aircraft to India.
In an online media interaction, organised by Russian news agency Sputnik India ahead of Putin’s visit to India on December 4-5, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, responding to the issue of 25 per cent US penalty tariff on India for buying Russian oil, said, “Tariffs between India and the United States is rather a question of bilateral relations between India and the United States. What concerns us is the way we are going to continue and enlarge the volume of our bilateral business with India, not letting anyone interfere in that. And this will be definitely discussed.”
“And we understand that there is pressure over India. And actually this is the reason that we have to be very careful in creating an architecture of our relationship that must be free of any influence coming from third countries. We have to secure our relationship. We have to secure our trade that brings mutual benefit. So trade can be only beneficial for both sides, and if we earn from this bilateral trade, we have to continue but we have to secure it from pressure from abroad.”
“India is very sovereign in defending its national interest. And we do admire this characteristic of India … And we are also very sensitive to this right of sovereignty, and we are very sensitive to not letting anyone interfere in our national interests,” he said.
On the reduction of oil imports from Russia, Peskov, who is also Putin’s Deputy Chief of Staff, said, “Some companies are slowing down the purchase. Some companies are enlarging the purchase. The system is very flexible, and it responds to additional pressure from third countries, very vividly and in a very sophisticated way. So we are looking forward to possibilities, despite everything, to ensure our right of selling oil and to ensure the rights of those who want to purchase oil, to ensure the right to buy our oil.”
On alternate payment methods, he said, “Various methods of payments between the two countries will be on the agenda. We, understandably, will not be able to speak on that, we will not be able to make it public… We are continuing to think together, how we have to create a real bilateral system or multilateral systems that could constitute an alternative for the systems that can be used as a political tool in order to put pressure on desired countries… This will be the case for our joint efforts.”
On the sanctions on Russian companies, he said, “There are sanctions against Russian companies, against the sector of oil production. But nonetheless, we are finding ways… not to let the volumes of trade down. There can be, for a very brief time. There can be insignificant drops and decreases in the volume of oil trade.”
“We consider those sanctions to be illegal from the point of view of international law. Sanction can be considered legal when it is approved by the United Nations Security Council… We have a deep experience in performing under the regime of these illegal sanctions. We have our own technologies.”
On India’s position on the Ukraine war, Peskov said, “We do appreciate the readiness of New Delhi to contribute to the search for a peaceful solution in this very complicated conflict. And we do respect the position of Prime Minister Modi.”
“We highly appreciate it, and what we like is that Prime Minister Modi and our Indian counterparts want to listen to our position firsthand. They want to understand our position. And it gives us a possibility to explain ourselves. And this ensures mutual understanding. This is very important. We would not speak with Europeans. We don’t have a dialogue. So how can you learn your counterpart’s position on a terribly complicated problem when you don’t speak to each other? This is the greatest problem that we have. But with India, it’s vice versa. India wants to listen to us. We want to explain ourselves. India hears us, and it’s a mutual understanding. So we do appreciate it.”
On Russia’s close ties with China, he said, “China is our privileged strategic partner, and we enjoy a very, very high level of cooperation with China in various fields, like with India and yes, it’s our readiness to enhance, to develop our cooperation with China’s various fields, without no limits, but the same stand we have with India. We are ready to go as far as India is ready, and we are ready to develop our cooperation in every possible field as far as India is ready.”
“We respect the bilateral relationship between India and China, and we have no doubt that the two oldest countries, two wisest countries in this world will be as wise as to settle down all the problems between them in order to keep global stability, global predictability and global peace and regional peace.”
On the sale of S-400s and Sukhoi-57s to India, Peskov said, “I have no doubt it will be discussed during the visit. President Putin is coming with a very wide delegation… The Su-57 is the best plane in the world. Yes, it’s not our exaggeration.. Let’s not speak about the details. There are lots of competitors in the world, and some of the competitors are not sticking to their business of international law.”
On the proposed nuclear cooperation and small modular reactors (SMRs), he said, “The answer is yes…And the chief of the nuclear firm will be carrying an offer for this small reactor in his bag, and this offer will be on the table of negotiations. Russia possesses this very important technology of small and very flexible nuclear reactors, which are of great interest… I have no doubt that we will be ready to discuss this issue with India and to supply these technologies to our Indian friends.”
On the labour mobility agreement, Peskov said, “This agreement is under discussion. We hope that there will be progress during the visit. Relevant ministries in both countries are conducting negotiations.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin. (AP) 
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