India-Russia cultural, biz ties continue to be strong: Consul General
The intensified political and economic dialogue between the two countries reflects their natural aspiration towards a deeper and more expanded engagement with the due focus on broader strategic interests, says Valerii Khodzhaev
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CHENNAI: In 2024, contacts between Russia and India on cultural and humanitarian tracks developed intensively. In particular, representatives from India took an active part in The World Festival of Youth (February March, Sochi, Russia), the Moscow International Film Festival (April, Moscow, Russia), the IX BRICS Young Scientists Forum (November, Sochi, Russia), the Vyzov Prize for Future Technologies (December, Moscow, Russia) and others, opined a group of delegates here at the Russian Centre of Science and Culture on Monday.
“The intensified political and economic dialogue between the two countries reflects their natural aspiration towards a deeper and more expanded engagement with the due focus on broader strategic interests,” said Valerii Khodzhaev, the Consul General of the Russian Federation in South India.
The important milestone was the bilateral summit in July in Moscow which strengthened cooperation in economic, trade, financial, energy, scientific, cultural and transport logistics fields, including in the increased operationalization of North-South and Vladivistok-Chennai corridors, accelerations of FTA talk between the Eurasian Economic Union and India. “Russia and India maintained close cooperation in the leading joint international platforms BRICS, G20, SCO in promoting non-western geo-economics project, the role of the global south and East majority in the world’s mainstream political and financial institutions,” Khodzhaev added.
In 2024, the RCSC in Chennai held over 80 events, in which more than 30,000 Indian residents participated. Russian language courses with 200 students operate on the basis of the RCSC in Chennai. “This year, we’re seeing an increase in the number of requests from Tamil Nadu educational institutions to organize Russian language courses on their basis. Next year we plan to pay special attention to this issue,” said Rossotrudnichestvo Aleksandr Dodonov, representative of the Russian agency.
In May and June, Russian Educational Fairs were held in Tamil Nadu with the participation of leading Russian universities. The Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom played an active role in the implementation of scientific events in Chennai. “Together RCSC in Chennai, Rosatom and the Tamil Nadu Science Center conducted the Scientific Olympiad (August) and the Science Festival (November) in which about 13,000 schoolchildren and students participated,” he added.