New Delhi: After a short-lived mutiny by a private army of mercenaries last week, the Russian national security adviser N. Patrushev called up his Indian counterpart to talk to him about the “latest events”.The discussion also came after the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US, which both sides have projected as a highly successful trip.Till now, only the Russians have issued a readout on the phone conversation.“The current issues of Russian-Indian cooperation in the field of security and the prospects for their deepening within the framework of bilateral and multilateral formats were discussed in detail. In addition, N. Patrushev informed A. Doval about the latest events in Russia,” said the Russian statement.It added that the two officials have “agreed to continue a confidential dialogue”.Last week, there were extraordinary scenes when the Wagner Group, an army of 25,000 fighters, took over a town and then started marching towards Moscow. They stopped about 200 kilometres away from the Russian capital, after the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko brokered a deal with the owner of Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was also a former close aide of Russian President Putin.Prigozhin had claimed that he was not planning a coup against Putin, but to topple the defence minister Sergei Shoigu and the top military leadership. While Moscow has agreed not to frame charges against him, Pirogozhin went into exile in Belarus. The Wagner Group’s contract that was ending on July 1 has also not been renewed, and they will not be fighting any longer in the Ukrainian war.India has, so far, maintained a studied silence on the aborted coup.With defence cooperation being one of the highlights of Modi’s state visit to Washington, the Russian government has commented only about the Master Ship Repair Agreement signed between the US Navy and Larsen and Toubro (L&T) Shipbuilding Ltd that will allow US Navy ships to undergo major repairs at Indian shipyards.In an interview to state-run Russian news agency TASS, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov had said that he was “confident that our Indian partners, being quite experienced and well-versed in the intricacies of contemporary global politics, are fully away of the risks that all of this may entail”.Russia had been the largest source for defence equipment for India, but the proportion has come down considerably in the last decade.TASS reported that Ryabkov said that Russia will continue to deepen its partnership, including defense ties, with India, “despite US chicanery”.Moscow and New Delhi have been developing a number of lucrative projects of interest to the Indian side, the senior Russian diplomat said.A TASS reporter asked a question about the Master Ship Repair Agreement at the Chinese foreign ministry media briefing on Monday. The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson didn’t respond directly about the agreement, but hoped that “relevant countries will act in ways conducive to mutual trust between regional countries in the field of security and stability in the region”.
