On November 17, Aide to the President of Russia and Chairman of the Maritime Board of Russia Nikolay Patrushev held Russian-Indian consultations on maritime cooperation in New Delhi.
Nikolay Patrushev had meetings with India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, National Maritime Security Coordinator Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta and Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal.
During the consultations, the parties discussed the development of bilateral cooperation in the civilian maritime sector, with a focus on collaboration in shipbuilding, port infrastructure and maritime logistics. Particular attention was paid to issues related to crew training as well as research activities in the exploration of the World Ocean.
In particular, Nikolay Patrushev emphasized:
“We can offer India interesting initiatives in shipbuilding, including providing existing or developing new designs for fishing, passenger and auxiliary vessels. We have extensive experience in creating specialized ships — such as ice-class vessels, not to mention icebreakers, where Russia has no rivals whatsoever. There are opportunities for our cooperation in green shipbuilding, which is currently one of India’s main priorities in the maritime domain.
Russia has accumulated significant innovative potential in shipbuilding. For many decades, the Krylov State Research Centre has been operating in St Petersburg. Its activities are continuously being improved. In the near future, it is planned to establish a national research centre on its basis, under whose aegis many scientific organizations in this field will operate.
Work on creating a joint database of standardized shipbuilding designs is highly promising, as it would allow India to significantly reduce the costs of modernizing its fleet. It would be reasonable to consider establishing shipbuilding and ship-repair clusters with Russian participation in such important economic areas as Mumbai or Chennai.
Source: Russian Embassy in India