India’s Leader, Visiting Moscow, Gets Assurance on Future Trade
The Soviet Union assured India on Monday that trade between the two countries will not suffer as a result of President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s economic reforms, Indian officials said.
Indian Prime Minister V .P. Singh, at the start of a four-day visit to Moscow, held talks with Gorbachev and Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai I. Ryzhkov on strengthening economic ties up to 1995.
Moscow is India’s main arms supplier and a key trading partner.
Singh is on his first visit to Moscow since defeating Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress Party in elections last November.
The Indian officials said Ryzhkov assured Singh that the Soviet Union is not neglecting its ties with India, Moscow’s most influential Asian ally.
The two sides reaffirmed in a statement their commitment to ridding the world of nuclear weapons, diverting resources from arms to development, protecting the environment and creating new global security structures.
“More than at any other previous moment in recent history, mankind has the prospect of building a new structure of cooperation and brotherhood among nations and peoples,” it said.
“India and the Soviet Union are determined to contribute constructively and vigorously to the attainment of this goal,” the statement added.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
