Watch it on NIICE Nepal YouTube Channel

Event Report

Russia is one of the major global pair and a balancer in global politics as well as in South Asia. To discuss the role of Russia in the South Asia and its various perspectives, the Nepal Institute for International Cooperation and Engagement (NIICE), Nepal organised its first webinar on “Russia in South Asia” as part of its series “Eurasia Dialogue.”

The keynote speakers were Dr. Sergey Lunev, Professor, MGIMO; P. Stobdan, Former Indian ambassador to Kyrgyzstan; Dr. Olga Kharina, MGIMO. The session was moderated by Viktoria Ivanchenko, RFTA, PICREADI.

Professor Sergey Lunev, began the session, mentioning that Soviet Union’s interest in South Asian region has been in place since long times ago. Soviet Union helped India in 1971 war and has sided with India during conflicts between India and Pakistan. However, in contemporary times, Russia has been trying its level best to maintain its relations not just with India but also with Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries. Mentioning that India is extremely important in geo-political scenario of South Asia, he said that Pakistan would not be able to change Russia’s imagination of India. He also emphasized on the fact that in Pakistan, the Pakistani Army is the major actor. Professor further mentioned that even though Russia and Pakistan held military exercise in September 2016, the India and China still remains the main priority of Russia.

The next speaker in the webinar, Ambassador P. Stobdan noted that the Russian presence in South Asian reason has been more of a bilateral rather than as the whole.  He repented that Russia has transactional relationships with South Asian countries but its more focus has been on South East Asia and European Union, due to which trade with South Asia is not going up. However, he mentioned that ‘South Asia’ is not a suitable term due to the diversity in the region but people to people connection is precious in this South Asian region and Russia cannot be seen negatively in the minds of people.  Putting forward India’s point of view, he mentioned that India is not aligning with US but is just balancing and not forming blocks. It shows the pragmatic and not the zero-sum game followed by India. He mentioned the importance of trust in international relations and opined that Russia is not feeling to replace China while being in interrelation with Pakistan. He summed up that in pre-1991, USSR had a major presence in Indian Ocean but currently Russia has not been that much interactive in the region.

As the last speaker, Dr. Olga Kharina put forward her lecture in three different aspects:  the South Asia as transitional region; China & India struggle and Russian politics and interest in the South Asian region.  She mentioned that smaller countries around India and China are not in a position to defend themselves or act as counter balance.  She expressed that Nepal has been as sandwich between India and China over natural resources. Even though Russia has no border with South Asian countries, it is giving support to India, engaging with China and seeing Pakistan as important partner in removing the drug traffic & terrorism issues. However, Russian relations in the region is asymmetrical because of Beijing’s economic prowess.

The participants raised their doubts and asked the question from different point of views for which answers were provided, in detail, by the eminent speakers.  The participants wanted to know the Russian stand on Kashmir, Taliban and India’s role in Afghanistan; India-Russia relations in pandemic times; Russia seeking help of India to get back in power relations with USA and Why Russia could not challenge US hegemony post 1991 period.

Prepared by Ambrish Tripathi, Intern at NIICE, Nepal