India's security concerns, Indo-Pacific discussed during Putin visit: Shringla

The Indo-Pacific and India's security concerns were discussed during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India on Monday, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said.

"The discussions at 2+2 were quite extensive, covered a very wide range of areas. We discussed South East Asia, ASEAN," said Shirngla during a press conference here on Monday emphasising "of course, we did discuss Indo-Pacific and India's security concerns."

He also stressed that "as far as Indo-Pacific is concerned, there was a sense that we are cooperating quite extensively already with Russia on areas that involved the region."

"I can say, issues which were related to our security concerns, those all issues were discussed. And I can not say more than this," said Shringla when asked if the India-China border issue in Eastern Ladakh was discussed in the meeting with the Russian side today.

"I did mention the Vladivostok-Chennai Maritime Corridor that link which is an important one where the DPR is nearing completion and we are looking at operationalising that maritime corridor quite soon," he said.

"We have also discussed with Russia on extending our cooperation in the Indian Ocean region also maritime cooperation," Shringla said, emphasising, "So we are working with Russia in the region."

Referring to Buddhist ties with Russia, he said: "We are looking at intensifying our Buddhist things with Russia. There are apparently 15 million Buddhists in Russia."

"This community is keen on looking at India for pilgrimage and other areas of interest," Shringla said, emphasising "cultural cooperation is also important for both countries."

( With inputs from ANI )

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