Whatever self-advertisement by Modi, there's been history of strong India-Russia ties: Congress

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday highlighted the longstanding ties between India and Russia, saying irrespective of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "self-advertisement", the two countries have had a history of strong relations, the solid foundations of which were laid during the 1950s-1980s.

Ahead of the bilateral meeting between Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the Soviet Union had been an "invaluable partner" in India's developmental journey that began in the 1950s.

"It went on to play a crucial role in building our country's steel, heavy engineering, mining, power, oil and gas, chemical, defence, space and nuclear industries. All this had been made possible by Jawaharlal Nehru's 16-day visit to the USSR in July 1955 and the return 20-day visit of Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev to India in Nov-Dec 1955," Ramesh said on X.

The Soviet Union had been an invaluable partner in India’s developmental journey that began in the 1950s. It went on to play a crucial role in building our country’s steel, heavy engineering, mining, power, oil and gas, chemical, defence, space and nuclear industries. All this… pic.twitter.com/NSpOYsVZTp

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) September 11, 2026

The Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation, over two years in the making and finally signed in New Delhi on August 9, 1971, was of tremendous strategic significance, he pointed out.

Ramesh said after the break-up of the USSR in December 1991, there was a hiatus, but in 1998 the India-Russia bilateral relationship was resumed with renewed vigour by Yevgeny Primakov and soon thereafter by President Putin himself.

"The Brahmos missile joint venture, some seven years in the making, was finalised by him with PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and later vastly expanded under PM Manmohan Singh with complexes being set up in New Delhi, Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram," he said.

"The point is simple: whatever the self-advertisement by Mr Modi, there has been a history of strong ties between India and Russia, the solid foundations of which were laid during the 1950s-1980s," Ramesh said.

Putin's predecessor Dmitry Medvedev had visited IIT-Bombay on December 22, 2010, and spent a few minutes seeing a completely forgotten symbol of those foundations that had come up almost half a century earlier, Ramesh said.

The Congress leader also shared a photo of that spot on campus right next to the P C Saxena Lecture Theatre, which Ramesh said was also part of his daily life from 1963 to 1975 at the IIT-Bombay campus.