Former EAM Natwar Singh welcomes Russian FM visit, says Lavrov friend of India

Former External Affairs Minister (EAM) Natwar Singh on Friday welcomed the visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to India and said that the two countries share good relations.

"Sergey Lavrov is a friend of India. He'll brief the PM and will explain Russia's policy on Ukraine. We've good relations with Russia, we get armaments from there. Russia has said that Kashmir is part of India which the US, Britain and France haven't," Natwar Singh said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had arrived in New Delhi on the first high-level visit by a Russian leader to India since Moscow's war against Ukraine which began last month. Lavrov held talks with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier today.

He also said that the US National Security Advisor (NSA) for International economics Daleep Singh's comments during his recent visit to India were unwelcome.

"It was not his business to comment on a matter like this," Natwar Singh said referring to Daleep Singh's remarks that India could not expect Russian help in case of more Chinese incursions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

"Relations between India and China are not the concern of the United States. We make our own decisions," Natwar Singh added.

Former EAM Natwar Singh also talked about the visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to India and said that it was a good decision on China's part to make the visit.

"Wang Yi was in India only for 18 hours, I don't think he could have the time to have an extensive discussion, but it was good that they thought it was worthwhile to come to India and now Delhi has received so many important visitors in the last few days, so we obviously matter," Natwar Singh said.

New Delhi has seen a flurry of visits by foreign leaders over the past fortnight. China's foreign minister Wang Yi had visited India last week.

( With inputs from ANI )