Vinay Kumar
NEW DELHI: Russian president Vladimir Putin said sanctions threats against India would “boomerang immediately”, affriming that New Delhi has always been “guided by its national interests”.Putin said India was 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”. “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… All the sanctions have been eliminated and the relationship between the USA and India is developing successfully, as I understand… 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. India is always guided by its national interests,” said Russian President Vladimir Putin.The Russian president said Kremlin’s cooperation with India “is not subject to the political environment” and that Moscow would stand “true to commitments given to our partners, especially partners like India”.“Our cooperation with India, just like with all other partners of ours, is not subject to the political environment. We can’t be dictated to not deliver that to India. Nobody can dictate to us and nobody would even try to do that… We will always stand true to commitments given to our partners, especially partners like India,” he further said.Putin on Friday said that “Brics has overtaken the G7” in terms of economic size, while also praising India as a “key partner” for its leading role in the IT and software industry.Speaking at the annual St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin said that developing countries are playing an increasingly important role in the global economy, while the share of Western economies has been shrinking.“If you look at the global GDP dynamics of the last five years, you will see that almost half of its annual growth, 49%, is accounted for by Brics countries, whereas the contribution of the so-called group of seven is estimated at 18%…,”Putin said.“The share of Brics and the world GDP based on purchasing power parity stands at 40%, whereas the G7 share is less than 29%,” he said.“So Brics has already overtaken the G7, and it did so back in 2020, but this gap is increasing. This gap is expected to grow in favour of Brics…” he added.He also projected stronger growth for Brics economies compared to advanced nations. “The G7 is going to grow at best by 1.1 % per year, whereas Brics nations are going to grow by more than 4%,” he said, adding that this trend is expected to continue.Further praising India’s role in the digital economy, Putin said, “Another of our key partners, India, is one of the leading players in the IT industry.”“It accounts for a significant share of the global software market,” he added.
