India, Russia making efforts to provide essential support to Afghans, says foreign secy Shringla

New Delhi and Moscow are making efforts to provide essential support to the people of Afghanistan, said Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla after the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin here today.

"The two sides agreed to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan, Shringla said at a press conference here on Monday emphasising that both sides were "making efforts to provide essential support to the Afghan people."

He also said that "the question of the legitimacy of the government (Afghanistan) I think did not come up at all".

Stressing that PM Modi and President Putin held in-depth discussions on strengthening bilateral multilateral cooperation, Shringla said both leaders noted that the extent of our bilateral cooperation in fighting the COVID pandemic was significant.

"It would be recalled that very early in the COVID pandemic, India had supplied COVID related medicines to nearly 25 regions and over 60 hospitals in Russia," he said, adding, "In the same spirit of solidarity Russia supported all efforts to fight the second wave of the pandemic."

Further Shringla informed that both leaders discussed the need for mutual recognition of vaccine certification to enable easier travel for citizens.

Stating that enhancing bilateral trade and investment figured prominently in the talks, Shringla said: "This year we have noticed an encouraging trend in trade figures compared to last year with Russia."

There were talks of how to enhance our trade and economic cooperation, he said, adding, "It included long term procurement of essential commodities, elimination of trade barriers, strengthening inter-regional linkages, bolstering connectivity, including through the International North-South Transport Corridor and the Chennai Vladivostok Maritime Corridor."

This was the first in-person meeting between PM Modi and Putin since they met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in 2019 in Brasilia. The visit of the Russian leader is in continuation of the tradition of annual summits held alternately in India and Russia.

( With inputs from ANI )