New Delhi: Becoming the first “P-5” member to openly back New Delhi, India’s time-tested friend Russia has once again sprung to New Delhi’s defence on the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) state and revoking of Article 370, pointing out that “the change in the status of the state of J&K and its division into two Union Territories” has been “carried out within the framework of the Constitution of the Republic of India”.
This supports the Indian stand that the recent developments are an “internal matter” of India and within its “sovereign jurisdiction”. Russian diplomatic sources conveyed to this newspaper that Moscow is the first permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC) to completely back the Indian position after the latest developments. Other permanent members of the UNSC (the P-5) are the United States, United Kingdom, France and China.
Also by referring to the “provisions of the Simla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore Declaration of 1999”, Moscow also clearly backed India’s view that any discussions on the Kashmir issue would have to be bilateral between New Delhi and Islamabad. In the backdrop of the aggressive stand taken by Islamabad, Moscow said it hoped India and Pakistan would “not allow aggravation” of the situation. The Russian position comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s forthcoming visit to Vladivostok in Russia early in September to be the Chief Guest at the Eastern Economic Forum there, at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Russian stand is also being seen as significant, given that Russia is a permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC) and Pakistan has already announced it would challenge India’s J&K move before the UNSC.
The Russian foreign ministry said, “Moscow expects that India and Pakistan will not allow aggravation of the situation in the region due to the change by Delhi in the status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. We proceed from fact that the changes associated with the change in the status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and its division into two union territories are carried out within the framework of the Constitution of the Republic of India. We hope that the parties involved will not allow a new aggravation of the situation in the region as a result of the decisions.”
Moscow added, “Russia is a consistent supporter of the normalisation of relations between India and Pakistan.We hope that the differences between them will be resolved by political and diplomatic means on a bilateral basis in accordance with the provisions of the Simla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore Declaration of 1999.”
For decades after its Independence, India — though part of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) — had close strategic ties with the then Soviet Union. Subsequently, the ties somewhat lost their lustre following the collapse of the USSR in 1991 and emergence of Russia as its successor state. But strategic ties between India and Russia remained strong. However, bilateral ties withstood another challenge in the past decade due to the growing strategic links between India and the United States with which Russia continues to have a troubled relationship. The Russians then had strengthened their bilateral engagements with Pakistan, which grabbed the opportunity. Nevertheless, the informal summit between Russian President Putin and PM Modi at the Black Sea resort town of Sochi in Russia last year put the ties back on a firm footing. India continues to have strong defence links with Russia despite American concerns.
