NEW DELHI: National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other senior officials, including Secretary of the Russian Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, in Moscow on Thursday.
Sources said this was part of the regular NSA-level dialogue between the two nations, and preceded the summit meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and recently re-elected Russian President Vladimir Putin expected in India later this year.
Apart from regular issues like combating narco-terrorism and organised crime, the two sides discussed the implications of the impending US sanctions on Russia and Iran, which could impact India’s pending arms purchases as well as its energy security.
Several Russian companies which supply military equipment and spares to India are likely to face sanctions under the US Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had travelled to Russia last month and discussed a slew of defence deals.
Sources in New Delhi said the government would decide on how to deal with the sanctions only after they were formally imposed and their “contours became clear.” According to one source, “We have already requested Washington to be sensitive to our concerns, particularly towards deals already finalized with Russians. We also pointed out that none of our purchases pose any direct or indirect threat to American interests.”
Sources said the Indian side also sought Russian help in freeing Indian engineers kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan earlier this month. However, they declined comment on whether the issue of Moscow’s increasing military and strategic relationship with Pakistan was raised.