India, Russia discuss West Asia crisis
New Delhi (PTI): India and Russia on Monday explored ways to further expand their already close strategic partnership against the backdrop of the West Asia crisis and its economic fallout.
The escalating conflict in West Asia is learnt to have figured prominently in Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko's meetings in New Delhi including with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
"Good to meet Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko of Russia. Spoke about further advancement of our wide-ranging cooperation. As well as regional and global developments," Jaishankar said on social media.
People familiar with the meeting said the crisis in West Asia figured in the discussion.
Rudenko also co-chaired India-Russia Foreign Office Consultations along with Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri.
"Both sides reviewed the full spectrum of Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership and shared perspectives on bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
It is learnt that the two sides reviewed implementation of decisions taken at the summit talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin last December.
Following talks between the two leaders, India and Russia unveiled a raft of measures including a five-year roadmap to build a robust economic partnership and to increase the annual trade to USD 100 billion by 2030.
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Rubio says NATO “does not exist without the United States”
Washington: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has criticised NATO, saying the military alliance “does not exist without the United States”.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Rubio said, “And everyone knows this fact.”
His remarks come amid growing tensions over the ongoing US-Israeli military actions against Iran.
US President Donald Trump has also sharply criticised NATO for not supporting the campaign. In a post on Truth Social, he said NATO countries are “COWARDS and we will REMEMBER!”
