India's relations with Russia not 'spectacular' but 'steady', says EAM S Jaishankar

India's relations with Russia may not be 'spectacular' but the two countries have a 'steady' relationship, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday while predicting that Moscow will focus more on Asia as its ties with the West have 'broken up'.

Jaishankar said this in response to a question during his appearance at the prestigious Hudson Institute think-tank when asked about India's relations with Russia amidst the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Asserting that every major international relationship in the last 70 years has seen great volatility, the minister pointed out that the relationship between New Delhi and Moscow has largely been stable.

"India, Russia are very exceptional. It's been very steady. It may not be spectacular. So, it may have stabilised at a certain level," he said.

Commenting on Russia's ties with the world due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, Jaishankar said, "I think as a consequence of what is going on in Ukraine, it seems to be clear that in many ways Russia's relationship with the West has broken up and in that case, it's logical that Russia focuses more on the Asian side of Russia, though historically Russia has always seen itself as a European power."

"I would predict Russia, which would consciously focus on the non-western world, away from Europe, away from the United States, and look much more at Asia, possibly at other regions as well, but Asia is economically the most active," he added.

He added that a 'reinvention' of Russia is happening as a consequence of what is happening in Ukraine.

Turning to Indo-US relations, Jaishnakar said that there is a powerful case for the two countries to work together.

"At the biggest picture level, I would say there's a very powerful case, really for India and the US to work together. So, if you look even within our systems, historically, it was actually our national security side which had the greatest suspicion of reservations about each other. Today it is the national security side, which is the most enthusiastic about greater bilateral cooperation," he said.

Responding to a question on alleged discrimination against minorities in India and criticism from some American politicians, Jaishankar said, "I know many of them have strong views, often electorally-driven, sometimes culturally driven. All of that so I'm a little hesitant to address specific examples. So, as broad propositions, all I can say where India is concerned is that the underlying culture of India is deeply pluralistic."

"In every society in the world, at some point, there's been some discrimination on some basis. So, if you look at India today, it's a society today where there's a tremendous change taking place," the minister said.

The biggest change happening today in India is the creation of a social welfare system in a society which has less than $3,000 per capita income. Nobody's done that in the world before, he said.

"Now when you look at the benefits of that, look at housing, look at health, look at food, look at finance, educational access and health access. I defy you to show me discrimination," Jaishankar said.

Jaishankar is currently on a five-day official trip to Washington DC.

He met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken State Department on Thursday, which was the highest-level interaction between the two countries after the recent G-20 Summit in New Delhi when President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met.

Jaishankar arrived here from New York on Wednesday after addressing the 78th General Assembly session of the United Nations on Tuesday.