Summit declarations normally spell out lofty principles and visionary goals. The Delhi Declaration between Russia and India is no exception. It emphasises all the areas of importance to both countries and commits them to a wide-ranging agenda for the future which would be expected to further consolidate their strategic partnership. Predictably, terrorism and steps to work together, occupies the greatest attention. The Declaration has done well to define terrorism as a crime against humanity. The problem has been the efforts, especially by the army leadership in Pakistan, to try and rationalise and legitimise terrorism in the name of religion since the days of General Zia ul-Haq. And it is good that the phenomenon of indiscriminate killing of innocents has been clearly identified as a major criminal activity and a gross violation of human rights. Both countries have committed themselves to the evolution of an equitable world order. The emphasis on the commitment to a new co-operative security order is also welcome, which would demand the strengthening of the UN. Equally important is the focus on global nuclear disarmament, and the support extended to plans for ‘systematic progressive’ nuclear arms reduction by Russia and the US, while calling for other nuclear weapon states to join this process. Unfortunately, proliferation after North Korea’s claim to have a weapons programme does not seem to have figured in any noticeable way. The most challenging aspect of the joint commitment, however, would be the upgradation of the economic and trade relations between Russia and India to which both countries have promised to give special focus. Bilateral trade has been declining for a number of years now. Several measures have been identified for future action. Both countries had agreed during the Delhi summit in 1988 to double the trade in the following five years. In reality, trade dropped to negligible levels from which it has been struggling to emerge. There are objective reasons for this poor performance. But the success or otherwise of strategic partnership in future would be decided by the progress in trade and economic relations between the two countries. A lot of hard work would have to be done by both sides to provide life to this aspect of the relationship and add substance to an old partnership.
