Foreign Secretary visits Russia

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale held talks with Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov in Moscow covering a range of bilateral and regional issues including the evolving situation in Afghanistan.

Gokhale visited Moscow from April 1-2.

The Ministry of External Affairs said both sides reviewed the implementation of the decisions of the 19th annual bilateral summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin here in October last year.

The talks also covered preparations for the next bilateral summit and cooperation under Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Russia-India-China trilateral grouping and other bodies.

"There were wide-ranging discussions on evolving situation in Afghanistan," the MEA said.

The foreign secretary also met Deputy Minister of Foreign Sergey Ryabkov and discussed regional and international issues including those relating to disarmament and non-proliferation.

"Foreign Secretary's meetings were in-depth and productive, characteristic of the special and privileged strategic partnership between India and Russia," the MEA said.

"The meetings resulted in enhanced mutual convergence and coordination of views on all major regional and international issues in the spirit of long standing and time-tested friendship between India and Russia," it said.