India Today Conclave: Russian Ambassador Denis Alipov discusses Ukraine war, peace prospects, and India-Russia relations. He states Russia's readiness for peace talks, including a potential Putin-Zelensky meeting. Alipov affirms Crimea and eastern territories as non-negotiable parts of Russia. He addresses India-Russia trade imbalance and offers India the SU-57 fighter jet with technology sharing.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Ladies and gentlemen, you heard the American point of view, let's have the Russian point
00:05of view.
00:07And let's give a very warm round of applause to Denis Talipov, the Russian ambassador to
00:12India.
00:13He, by the way, is a veteran ambassador, he's been… this is his fourth stint here.
00:19His daughter and son were born here, they were twins and regards it as his karma bhumi,
00:24I would gather.
00:25Denis Talipov Oh, absolutely.
00:27So, Denis, let's get straight to the big development.
00:32How is Russia taking the big changes in the US approach towards the Ukraine war?
00:39Are you smiling?
00:40Denis Talipov No, we are very sober.
00:46Obviously the approach of the current US administration in comparison to their predecessors is showing
00:58the right signs to stop the conflict in Europe.
01:04I'll put it, you know, simply, came Trump and says, I want a peace deal.
01:14The US officials approached us and we had a very good meeting in Saudi Arabia and we
01:22saw that the Americans now are prepared to not only listen but to hear.
01:34And we also see Zelensky, we also see Ukraine, we also see the Europeans who continue on
01:47that belligerent path.
01:49They are speaking about the need of Russia to withdraw, they are speaking about the security
01:58guarantees for which the NATO membership would be the best option, they're talking
02:06about the militarization of Europe, the recently concluded summit, you know, took the decisions
02:16on about it.
02:21Why should we accept these conditions, plainly speaking?
02:32We can go without any peaceful negotiations, we are winning this war, yet we are prepared
02:44for the peace deal, we are willing to go fast on this track, but the stumbling block
02:58is Europe and Ukraine at the moment, as it seems.
03:05And so, let's see how it will develop, I don't personally, I don't think the process will
03:14be, will go fast, I don't think.
03:17You don't think there will be a summit meeting between President Putin and President Trump
03:23soon?
03:24No, no, we are ready for that.
03:29Let's see how, what results will bring the, you know, discussion between the US and Ukraine.
03:46Zelensky was not prepared for a quick, you know, process when he went to Washington.
03:56Now he says that he is prepared for that, he's prepared for that mineral deal with the
04:03US, that is their business, I don't know what it is about.
04:10And maybe the Americans will be able to convince Zelensky to go quick, to go fast.
04:21We are prepared for that.
04:23Are you prepared or President Putin prepared to meet President Zelensky?
04:27Of course.
04:28Anytime?
04:29Immediately?
04:30I believe so, I believe so.
04:35The problem with such a meeting would be the Ukrainian position.
04:42Zelensky himself banned himself and the others to negotiate with us.
04:48They have a legislation, a law, forbidding to negotiate with Russia.
04:54This is one thing.
04:55The other is the legitimacy of the current Ukrainian president.
05:02His tenure has expired.
05:05So do you think Zelensky's history after what happened between him and Donald Trump, do
05:11you think his history, it's over for Zelensky?
05:14You don't want to negotiate?
05:15I don't know.
05:16Frankly, I don't know.
05:17I don't know.
05:19The Americans regard him as a legitimate president, I believe.
05:26We do not, yet we are prepared to sit in trilateral format.
05:37You are prepared for a trilateral format?
05:39We are prepared for that.
05:42But I don't think you would contest that the Ukrainian regime is totally dependent
05:54on the U.S. assistance.
05:57In military terms, in financial terms, not so much in Europe.
06:01Europe itself is dependent on the U.S., no matter what they say about the militarization,
06:09about increasing the defense production.
06:12Frankly, they don't have enough funds to fund that.
06:20They're now trying to adjust themselves.
06:26And say that Russia, again say that Russia is a threat to Europe.
06:36The situation in Ukraine was obviously provoked.
06:42Russia, even during the Soviet times, during the Cold War, NATO was created first, Warsaw
06:50Pact was created afterwards as a deterrent to NATO.
06:57Then the Soviet Union disintegrated.
07:00There is no Warsaw Pact.
07:01There is no Soviet Union.
07:04NATO is still here.
07:06It has expanded and openly states that Russia is an enemy, an adversary.
07:14How should we regard that?
07:16As a threat of Russia to Europe or vice versa?
07:19You know, you talked of winning the war.
07:21It's three years now, February 24, 2022 was when the, call it a special military ops,
07:29everybody else calls it the Ukraine war.
07:32And yet, Russia has not won the war.
07:36What is the position?
07:38What have you gained in these three years and why aren't you winning?
07:41If you were so confident winning the war, normally when you go to war, you go to win,
07:45right?
07:46And not seek war to seek peace.
07:50The military equipment Ukraine had has long expired.
07:57They are now experiencing severe shortages in manpower, not us, Ukraine.
08:06They're totally dependent on NATO's military assistance, on the financial assistance of
08:13its Western backers.
08:15Had it not been there, the conflict would have been long over.
08:22But that was never our objective.
08:26We wanted to avoid the confrontation at all costs.
08:33Way back in 2007, when Putin spoke at the Munich conference, pointing out that, look,
08:42we need to have, sit and have a collective security in Europe.
08:49Europe will never feel secure without incorporating Russia.
08:55Russia will never feel secure without a dialogue, a positive dialogue with Europe.
09:04We are neighbors.
09:06We will not go anywhere.
09:08We need to have, there cannot be a separate security for Europe and a separate for Russia.
09:15This is impossible.
09:17There should be.
09:19There is an organization on cooperation and security in Europe, which was created specifically
09:28for this purpose.
09:29It failed.
09:32We need to relaunch this process.
09:35We need to look broader at Eurasia.
09:39Which is what I wanted to come to.
09:41What are the contours of a peace deal?
09:43What are the red lines for Russia?
09:45What will Russia settle with?
09:48Because that's critical.
09:49The war is not over.
09:50It's still there.
09:51You have captured quite a lot of territory, but have you really fulfilled all the objectives
09:55that you had?
09:56And what will Russia settle for?
09:58We never wanted to capture anything.
10:00Those territories would have stayed with Ukraine had it not been so stupid in their approach.
10:11Our objective is that Ukraine and the territory of Ukraine does not threaten us in military
10:21terms.
10:24And when Europeans and the U.S. started to speak about membership of Ukraine, that was
10:32the red line.
10:36We need to have Ukraine, a Ukraine that does not pose a danger to us.
10:47As regards the eastern territories and Crimea, this train has gone for Ukraine.
10:57These are now parts of the Russian Federation.
11:01This is non-negotiable at the moment, out of question.
11:07They should have thought about it before.
11:10And I would gather Donetsk and Luhansk you would want to keep.
11:16The Donbass area, that is yours.
11:21Those are integral parts of the Russian Federation at the moment.
11:25This is out of question.
11:27Well, you've drawn the red lines on that, but I want to bring you to India in the remaining
11:32minutes that we have, and look at how do you see India's role, or does India really have
11:37a role in settling the Ukraine war, bringing peace, and what kind of role do you expect
11:42India to have?
11:45We did not expect from India anything in this regard.
11:49And I think External Minister Jaishankar has also spoke about that in London just recently.
12:02India is not looking at some kind of a mediation role, has always called for a peaceful resolution.
12:13We value that very much and have always appreciated that.
12:19This is exactly the Russian position.
12:25And I believe what the efforts should be targeted now to persuade the Europeans and Ukrainians
12:37to start talking and doing peace.
12:43Because they are now the belligerent part, they are now willing, some of them, I mean
12:52some of the European leaders are even saying that continuing with war would be safer for
13:00Ukraine than a peace, an immediate peace deal.
13:05Excuse me, what kind of a position is this?
13:09Right.
13:10I think that's Europe's position at the moment, but let's come back to India and if you look
13:14at the fact, how do you see the future of India-Russia relations, given the fact that
13:20in the past couple of years we've moved much closer to the US, and if you want to call
13:24it the West, than ever.
13:26Is that going to have an impact on our relations?
13:37I appreciate the question, Raj, but you won't succeed in dragging me into this discussion.
13:44I believe India is very consistent and has become strong enough to rely on itself.
13:56And its foreign policy is driven by national interests, driven by the mandate of the Indian
14:03people.
14:05It considers Russia as one of strategic priorities.
14:12We have our own foreign policy concept in which India is one of the top priorities.
14:20I'm very optimistic about the future of our relations, we have a remarkable history behind
14:29us.
14:30Fair enough, I get that, but let's put it the other way.
14:33Russia and China have got much closer in the last couple of years.
14:38We have had issues with China, as you've seen, border problems in 2020, maybe there's a bit
14:43of a thaw, but China is one of our big security threats that's there.
14:47Tomorrow if China does something to India, which side will Russia take, China or India?
14:53We don't think in confrontation terms.
15:03We are thinking in cooperation terms.
15:06We want Europe, we want Asia, we want the whole world to cooperate and live on fair
15:19terms with the goodwill.
15:25It would take our biggest continent, the Eurasian continent, we have three largest powers on
15:35it – India, obviously, China and Russia.
15:41And we've had the quite successful trilateral format until recently, the Russia-India-China
15:51format in which we met and spoke about joint initiatives, the future of the continent and
16:02the world at large.
16:05That is about cooperation.
16:07We are in favour of building confidence between India and China.
16:22That we favour.
16:24We don't want to excise.
16:28We endorse the building of goodwill.
16:31We are willing to help in any way if required by both parties to help building the confidence
16:45between you.
16:48This is our objective.
16:51There will certainly be big competition, but it should be a positive competition, not
17:02like an adversary-type competition.
17:06India might be disappointed that you're not taking the sides.
17:08In the past, you would take our side whenever there were big international confrontations,
17:12but we'll keep it at that.
17:14Let us look at one more aspect.
17:16But we took the Indian side in 1971.
17:20Don't forget that.
17:21India has a long memory.
17:23This is elephant country.
17:26But we've got two minutes left and let's look at India-Russia trade.
17:32It's about $64.5 billion.
17:35Out of that, Russia exports $60 billion to us and we export you only $4 billion.
17:41So the balance of trade, if we were Trump, we would be saying reciprocal and trying to
17:48get equity in terms of trade.
17:50What is the problem?
17:51Why is it that India is not able to do business with Russia as you are able to do with us?
17:57There is a big fear of secondary Western sanctions that trade with Russia will invoke.
18:11But it is important to know that there are mechanisms between us, bilateral mechanisms.
18:20International currencies, trade, transactions, and other that allow us to expand in trade.
18:31I think this is the very opportune moment for India to expand.
18:39Look at what Trump is saying.
18:45It looks like the U.S. is willing to return to Russia because they abandoned a huge profitable
18:57market for political reasons.
19:01And it looks like they're willing to come after the peace deal is concluded.
19:10If that happens, and this may happen fast, I myself am not quite optimistic about the
19:18pace, but if that happens fast, India will miss the bus.
19:23That's a good point.
19:26America is wanting to do business with Russia and we are only able to do business with you
19:29all because of that.
19:30But final question, 13 seconds left.
19:33Trump offered to sell us the F-35 stealth fighter.
19:36Russia, what will you give us?
19:41We're offering our own fifth generation fighter.
19:44We have the best machine, SU-57.
19:49We just showed it, displayed it at IRO-India last month in Bangalore, and it performed
19:59and stole the show.
20:04It is very competitive.
20:09We are offering not only to sell, but to co-produce.
20:15We offer technology sharing, we offer industry, we have creation of necessary industrial facilities
20:27for production of this.
20:30We are open to configuration changes, so this is a very lucrative deal that we offer to
20:40India.
20:41I think we're in a very good position if and when it comes to some kind of a tender, whatever.
20:55But India wants to build its own fifth generation fighter.
21:01This is also a factor.
21:03So between the F-35 and the SU-57, India-Russia relations might improve, may get even better
21:10as it's there.
21:11But Denis Alipov, thank you very much for being candid and frank about the answer.
21:14Ladies and gentlemen, let's give him a very, very warm round of applause, the Russian ambassador.