New Delhi: Hours after former AICC president Rahul Gandhi criticised the Centre for the cancellation of the annual India-Russia summit, the foreign ministry clarified that the summit was cancelled owing to the Covid crisis and stated that any statements or reports suggesting otherwise were “false and misleading”.
The statement from the foreign ministry came after Rahul Gandhi posted a screenshot of an article with the caption, “Russia is a very important friend of India. Damaging our traditional relationships is short-sighted and dangerous for our future.”
Russia is a very important friend of India.
Damaging our traditional relationships is short-sighted and dangerous for our future. pic.twitter.com/U5VyFWeS6L
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 23, 2020
According to the article tweeted by Rahul, this is the first time in the last 20 years that India and Russia have not held their annual summit.
Speaking about the cancellation, foreign ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that the annual summit was not held in 2020 owing to the COVID pandemic and that it was a “mutually agreed decision between the two governments”. He added that any other suggestion about the development is “false and misleading” and that spreading of such narratives about important relationships is “particularly irresponsible”.
The India-Russia annual summit has been held since the year 2000, when the ‘Declaration on the India-Russia Strategic Partnership’ was signed between the two countries.
The report tweeted by Rahul Gandhi mentions that cancellation of the summit comes around the time when Moscow expressed reservations regarding India’s joining of the Quadrilateral coalition or Quad and the Indo-Pacific initiative, terming the move as detrimental to inclusive dialogue for ensuring peace and stability in the region.
The Quad groups together the US, India, Japan, and Australia in a bid to ensure a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific. It is being perceived as a countermeasure to China’s growing aggression in the South China Sea.
