Fahwad Al-Khadoumi (nsnbc ) : Russian
President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India was described as success as
over 20 documents were penned after painstaking preparations and as the
two counties agreed to steadily expand cooperation on all sectors
including trade, defense, and the controversial but highly propagandized
nuclear sector.
Speaking to the press in India on
Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that Indian – Russian
relations are gradually developing in all sectors of cooperation.
Putin’s statement came after a meeting with India’s Prime Minister
Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
Putin
arrived in India on Thursday morning. Besides meeting Modi, Putin has
also scheduled meetings with India’s President Pranab Kumar Mukherjee
and representatives of India’s business community.
Before Putin’s departure, the Russian
presidency at the Kremlin informed the press that some 20 documents
which have been prepared over a longer period are expected to be penned
during Putin’s visit. The Russian president is accompanied by other
senior Russian government officials.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
noted that Russia always has been a close friend of India and a
privileged strategic partner.
On the agenda between the top officials of Russia and India are also issues pertaining the BRICS countries, matters pertaining the United Nations, as well as developments within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Both Russian and Indian media spend much
of their coverage focusing on Modi’s and Putin’s attendance at the
opening of the World Diamond Conference. Russia is one of the world’s
largest exporters or raw industrial diamonds and diamonds for the
production of jewelry. India, for its part, is one of the world’s
leading nations in the cutting of precious stones.
Putin’s visit began shortly after the Russian built Kudankulam
nuclear power plant went on the grid. India and Russia agreed on the
delivery of 12 Russian-build nuclear power plants for India by 2035
while as many as 24 may be on the table.
State and corporate funded Russian and
Indian media, almost exclusively report in positive terms about the
development while the existence of a largely oppressed anti-nuclear
energy lobby in India and Russia either is omitted or denigrated as
“minority activists”, while serious scientific arguments swept under the
rug.
Also swept under the rug is that no electric power company, nuclear power plant (NPP) manufacturer or government, worldwide, accepts liability clauses pertaining damages to the environment and the people.
The Indian and Russian government’s experts insist that lessons were learned from the still ongoing, 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi NPP. The Indian government describes criticism of the Kudankulam NPP and other NPPs
in India as “unfair business practice” by competitors. Meanwhile, no
nation has yet solved the issue of safely storing highly toxic waste for
100,000 years, as some of it requires.
“Merely studying how the coast lines
of India were only 20,000 years ago, the fact that we find entire
sunken cities off the West Coast of India or in the Black Sea, or
considering how far back our historical memory reaches puts the issue
into an appropriate perspective”, said Christof Lehmann over the phone on Friday morning, adding that “the pro-nuclear propaganda shows the frailties of human psychology”.
Previous to Putin’s visit, independent
analyst and nsnbc editor-in-chief Christof Lehmann commented on this
issue over the phone, saying:
“The semantics used by Russian and Indian media and diplomats strongly remind about the United States’ “Atoms for Peace” propaganda while it is a matter of public record that nuclear energy production was developed as by-product of the nuclear weapons industry. He added that an anti-nuclear energy movement in Russia, India, as well as Iran exists, has a solid scientific basis, but is omitted by state and corporate media in Russia and India, as it is in Iran, the USA, Japan, and in any other country that is part of the nuclear-industrial nexus.”
Talks
will also focus on a substantial increase of deliveries of Russian
natural gas to India. The country is suffering from a lack of
convergence in the energy-security interests of Myanmar,
China, and Bangladesh which is to a large degree fueled by US/UK and
western venture capitalist’s interests in Myanmar’s gas fields off the
coast of Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
In 2012, Lehmann wrote an extensive
analysis of the issue which, as he notes, is also one of the root
factors behind the provocation of so-called sectarian, inter-communal
violence in Rakhine State. The analysis was published under the title “Myanmar, Gas and the Soros-Funded Destruction of a Nation State“.
Putin also commented on the development
of stronger strategic and military ties between India and Russia, saying
that this would also be expanded to the joint development of advanced
weapons systems. In an interview with PTI, Putin commented on the issue
saying:
“The high level of bilateral cooperation and trust allows us to start a gradual transition from the traditional producer-consumer model to the joint development and production of advanced weapon systems. … We already have examples of such effective cooperation, by which I mean the production of high-precision up-to-date BrahMos missiles and creation of a multifunctional fifth-generation fighter aircraft.”
Putin’s visit to India is the sixth one in his capacity as President of the Russian Federation, reports Tass.
Putin visited India once, in 2010, during his term as Prime Minister.
Tass notes that Putin first visited India in 2000, when Russia and India
agreed on holding annual bilateral summits and signed a Strategic
Partnership Agreement.
F/AK – nsnbc 12.12.2014
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