On March 20, 2025, the Russian International Affairs Council and the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) held the annual conference “Russia-India: Contours of Cooperation in a Changing World Order”. The event is designed to promote an open exchange of views on dialog between Moscow and New Delhi in all fields at the global, regional, and bilateral levels. This year the conference was held for the eighth time.
Ivan Timofeev, RIAC Director General; Nutan Kapoor Mahawar, ICWA Additional Secretary (Chair); Roman Babushkin, Minister Counsellor at the Russian Embassy in the Republic of India; and Nikhilesh Giri, Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of the Republic of India (online) delivered the welcoming remarks and greeted the speakers.
The Conference was structured into three theme-based sessions devoted to different domains of the India-Russia partnership.
At the introductory session “Changing Dynamics in the Global Order”, the parties presented their views on the specific features of the two countries’ current foreign policy strategies. In particular, the participants discussed the role of international institutions in global governance, as well as underrepresentation of the Global South countries in multilateral institutions. The focus was also on Eurasia, namely Russian ideas for structuring the region, like the Greater Eurasian Partnership (GEP) and the new Architecture of Eurasian Security.
The second session of the conference “Dimensions of Russia-India Collaboration: Factoring Economic, Energy and Connectivity Ties” was devoted to conventional issues of financial and investment cooperation, as well as challenges in agriculture and food security. The core topic of the discussion was the prospect of concluding an FTA between the EAEU and India to eliminate regulatory barriers and progressively increase the volume of bilateral trade.
The third and final session, “Emerging Frontiers of Russia-India Bilateral Collaboration” explored opportunities for developing Russian-Indian dialog in the Arctic, the Russian Far East, and the Indo-Pacific. The overarching theme of the session was bridging transportation gaps, including developing logistics infrastructure and connectivity.
On March 20, 2025, the Russian International Affairs Council and the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) held the annual conference “Russia-India: Contours of Cooperation in a Changing World Order”. The event is designed to promote an open exchange of views on dialog between Moscow and New Delhi in all fields at the global, regional, and bilateral levels. This year the conference was held for the eighth time.
Ivan Timofeev, RIAC Director General; Nutan Kapoor Mahawar, ICWA Additional Secretary (Chair); Roman Babushkin, Minister Counsellor at the Russian Embassy in the Republic of India; and Nikhilesh Giri, Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of the Republic of India (online) delivered the welcoming remarks and greeted the speakers.
The Conference was structured into three theme-based sessions devoted to different domains of the India-Russia partnership.
At the introductory session “Changing Dynamics in the Global Order”, the parties presented their views on the specific features of the two countries’ current foreign policy strategies. In particular, the participants discussed the role of international institutions in global governance, as well as underrepresentation of the Global South countries in multilateral institutions. The focus was also on Eurasia, namely Russian ideas for structuring the region, like the Greater Eurasian Partnership (GEP) and the new Architecture of Eurasian Security. During the first session, the Russian side included Ivan Timofeev, RIAC Director General, and Maxim Suchkov, Director of the Institute for International Studies, MGIMO University. On the Indian side, the session was attended by Nivedita Ray, ICWA Research Director; Sanjeev Kumar, ICWA Senior Research Fellow; and Himani Pant, ICWA Research Fellow.
Sanjay Pandey, Professor at the Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University moderated the meeting. Participants highlighted the enduring and reliable nature of the decades-long Russian-Indian partnership and agreed on the non-confrontational, constructive nature of BRICS and other non-Western multilateral institutions.
The second session of the conference “Dimensions of Russia-India Collaboration: Factoring Economic, Energy and Connectivity Ties” was devoted to conventional issues of financial and investment cooperation, as well as challenges in agriculture and food security. The core topic of the discussion was the prospect of concluding an FTA between the EAEU and India to eliminate regulatory barriers and progressively increase the volume of bilateral trade. The second session was addressed by Ivan Timofeev, RIAC Director General; Lidia Kulik, Head of India Studies at the SKOLKOVO School of Management, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Indian Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences; and Igor Makarov, Head of the Department of World Economy at the Faculty of World Economy and World Politics, HSE University. The Indian side was represented by Amit Bandari, Senior Research Fellow at the Gateway House (Mumbai, India), and ICWA Research Fellows Himani Pant and Aman Kumar. Julia Melnikova, Head of RIAC’s Asia and Eurasia Program, moderated the discussion.
The third and final session, “Emerging Frontiers of Russia-India Bilateral Collaboration” explored opportunities for developing Russian-Indian dialog in the Arctic, the Russian Far East, and the Indo-Pacific. The overarching theme of the session was bridging transportation gaps, including developing logistics infrastructure and connectivity. The keynotes were delivered by Julia Melnikova, Head of RIAC’s Asia and Eurasia Program; Alexey Kupriyanov, Head of Center of the Indo-Pacific Region, IMEMO RAS; and Irina Strelnikova, Associate Professor of the Department of International Regional Studies and CCEIS expert, HSE University, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of China and Contemporary Asia RAS. ICWA was represented by Senior Research Fellow Athar Zathar, Senior Research Fellow; Stuti Banerjee, Senior Research Fellow; Pragya Pandey and Aman Kumar, Research Fellows. The discussion was moderated by Chintamani Mahapatra, Editor of India Quaterly and Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (2016–2022).
At the end of the Conference, the heads of delegations exchanged gifts and proposals for joint publications of expert materials on the websites of RIAC and ICWA respectively.
