NSA Doval had rare one-to-one with Putin on Global issues

Russian President Vladimir Putin had an hour-long one-to-one meeting with visiting Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Thursday evening in which there was a nothing-off-the-table discussion with an aim to cement bilateral ties and share global security environment.

While both Moscow and New Delhi have been silent on the meeting – the Indian embassy said in a tweet on Thursday that Doval met Putin but did not elaborate, and most reports have focused on proceedings at the meeting of regional NSAs which Putin also attended – HT learns that President Putin spoke at length on the global and regional security environment and ways to further strengthen age-old India-Russia ties. The two sides agreed to implement the special and privileged relationship between India and Russia during the highly classified meeting.

According to diplomats based in Moscow, NSA Ajit Doval met President Putin twice, once with the National Security Advisors of Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan as part of the regional dialogue on Afghanistan. Then, on Thursday, he was summoned by the Russian leader for a rare closed door meeting. NSA Doval also had a bilateral exchange with President Putin’s right-hand man and Secretary of Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev. Both Putin and Patrushev have known NSA Doval from the past with the Russian NSA in touch with the Indian national security official on international and national security matters.

While Doval may be carrying a message for PM Modi from President Putin, one of the key outcomes of the 5th Regional Dialogue on Afghanistan in Moscow under the chairmanship of the Indian NSA was the convergence between all participating national security officials on countering terror threat emanating from the Af-Pak region. While India has made it clear that it would do all it can to support Kabul with an inclusive and representative dispensation in interest of Afghan society, the participants agreed to share real intelligence on terror groups such as the Islamic State of Khorasan Province, and Pakistan headquartered Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba. It was decided that all terror groups and terrorists designated by the 1267 UNSC committee should be denied sanctuary or shelter to operate from Afghanistan.