Kolkata, Aug. 31 -- India and Russia must build on their longstanding ties while widening cooperation in technology, trade, education, manufacturing and people-to-people exchanges, Union Minister of State for Education and Development of North Eastern Region Sukanta Majumdar said on Monday.

Speaking at the India-Russia Bilateral Conclave, SAMPARK, at the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre in Kolkata, Majumdar said the description of the two countries as "time-tested partners" remained valid but was no longer enough to define their future ambitions.

Organised by Kolkata-based think tank P3 (People. Policy. Polity.), the event aimed to bring Eastern India and West Bengal into the core of national-level bilateral discussions.

"Our partnership is broadening and we must together explore new opportunities and give a fresh impetus to this historic partnership," he said.

Defence, energy, strategic cooperation and diplomatic ties would remain important, he said, but future engagement would increasingly involve artificial intelligence, digital technologies, advanced manufacturing, critical minerals, innovation and research.

Majumdar also pointed to Kolkata's role in India-Russia cultural and intellectual exchanges. Russian Consul General in Kolkata Maxim V. Kozlov said it was significant that a major discussion on bilateral ties was being held in eastern India rather than being concentrated in New Delhi, Mumbai and other metropolitan centres.

He recalled that diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in April 1947, while people-to-people contacts dated back much further. He cited Russian traveller Afanasy Nikitin and scholar Gerasim Lebedev, who contributed to Bengali theatre in Kolkata in the late 18th century.

The strategic relationship gained a formal framework with the Declaration of Strategic Partnership in October 2000 and later developed into a Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership.

Kozlov said the next task was to make the relationship "more comprehensive, multidimensional and future-oriented". India and Russia have set a target of raising bilateral trade to USD 100 billion by 2030. Russia is already a major supplier of energy products, fertilisers and agricultural goods to India, while Kozlov called for more Indian products to enter the Russian market.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.