Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday backed India's economic autonomy and said that it has always acted like a “sovereign country”. He said that any attempts to threaten India with sanctions would “boomerang” under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“India always acts as a sovereign country and under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, any potential threats of sanctions would boomerang immediately. We have been in close talks with Prime Minister Modi for a long while,” Putin said while speaking at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
He also said that India is “always guided by its national interests” and that the country is free to choose what suits its interests best. “India is free to choose the products that they consider to be most up to date, most applicable for them and obviously offering the best price-quality ratio,” he said.
Putin hailed defence and tech ties between India and Russia and said that experts from both the countries have been working on mid-range missile BrahMos.
“India and we have a very good, long-standing relationship in terms of military and technical cooperation interaction. A significant portion of the armed forces of India is equipped with Russian equipment. This is a tradition that dates back to the Soviet times. Our relations with the Indian friends are specific, thanks to our mutual trust. We concentrate not just on trade, buying and selling, but also on joint research and development. Indian and Russian experts have been working on the design of the mid-range missile BrahMos,” Putin said.
