‘PM Modi is Right’: Putin Says Russia Can Emulate, Learn from ‘Make in India’ Initiative – News18

Russia President Vladimir Putin said Russia can emulate success stories of its partners to promote the growth of its own domestic industries. Putin pointed to the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing the 8th Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Tuesday.

“We did not have domestically made cars then, but we do now. It is true that they look more modest than Mercedes or Audi cars, which we bought in vast amounts in the 1990s, but this is not an issue,” Putin said, referring to Russia’s automobile industry.

“I think that we should emulate many of our partners, for example, India. They are focused on the manufacture and use of Indian-made vehicles. I think that Prime Minister Modi is doing the right thing in promoting the Make in India programme. He is right,” Putin said.

The ‘Make in India’ initiative focuses on giving a boost to entrepreneurship in India, across manufacturing and several other sectors.

Putin said it is absolutely alright to use Russian-made automobiles and said that it will not lead to any infringements of Russia’s WTO obligations. “We must create a certain chain regarding what cars different classes of officials can drive so that they will use domestically-made cars,” Putin said.

Putin said that the recently announced India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) will be of benefit to Moscow and not detrimental to it. Russia is not a part of the IMEC but its arch-rival, the US, is investing in it and the bulk of western European nations, who have sanctioned Putin and Russia, are also investors and beneficiaries of this mega infrastructure deal.

The IMEC was launched during the G20 Summit in New Delhi. On Saturday, the ambitious India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) was jointly announced by the leaders of the US, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union on the sidelines of the summit in New Delhi.

It will connect West Asia and Gulf countries with Europe via railways and then connect them to India via shipping lanes and ports.

“I think it is for our good; it will help us develop logistics,” Putin said while responding to a question about the IMEC initiative. “First, this project (IMEC) has been discussed for a long time, maybe for the past several years. Truth be told, the Americans joined it at the last minute. But I do not really see why they would want to be part of it, except maybe in terms of some business interest,” the Russian President further added.