India & Russia - Putin's visit to India

Understanding the India-Russia Alliance & Putin's Historic Visit | Takaro Kids

In this week's episode of Takaro Kids, we delve into the historic visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India, highlighting the long-standing alliance between the two nations. We discuss the significance of this visit amidst the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, and explore the various areas of cooperation between India and Russia, including defense, oil, nuclear power, and trade. Additionally, we touch on the geopolitical dynamics and the implications of such partnerships on global politics. Stay tuned for our quiz segment and learn interesting facts about the international relations and cultural ties between India and Russia.

00:00 Introduction to Takaro Kids
00:14 India and Russia: A Historical Friendship
02:27 Oil and Defense: The Backbone of India-Russia Relations
03:55 Geopolitical Dynamics and Trade Agreements
06:26 Nuclear Power and Visa Policies
13:07 Quiz Time!
14:25 Last Week's Quiz and Winners
16:58 Conclusion and Farewell

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Transcript

Debkanya 0:00

Mics camera. Action. Welcome to Takaro Kids is where we break down the news and events from around the world in a very simple way for everyone to understand and enjoy.

Kiran Menon 0:14

And this week we are going to be talking about India and Russia. There could have been many topics that we picked for this week, uh, including a very fam famous airline disaster that happened in India, or I think all of us suffered from it. I know I did. Um, but, you know, we thought this was more important given the global significance of Russian President Lair Putin's visit to India.

Debkanya 0:44

That's right. Putin was in India for a few days. He's just gone back home, in fact, to Moscow. This was his first visit to India since the Russian war with Ukraine started, which was around three years ago in 2022, we've done an episode

Kiran Menon 1:00

Yep.

Debkanya 1:01

on this topic. You can go back and learn all about what this Ukraine, Russia war is about,

Kiran Menon 1:06

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 1:07

this is important because India historically has been a great friend of Russia, right? They've always been seen as allies, so it's very significant from that point of view. Mm-hmm.

Kiran Menon 1:18

Yeah. So ever since, 1970s, I think Russia and India have been very, very good friends. And, uh, you know, a fun fact is most people who are listening to this may not know, but there was a actor called Raj Kapoor. He was super, super famous in Russia and uh, that's where he kind of got his fame outside of India, he was actually very popular in India, but also outside in Russia.

Debkanya 1:45

know a

Kiran Menon 1:45

Uh,

Debkanya 1:45

of Indian movies, like, uh, Bollywood movies are quite popular. Were quite popular in

Kiran Menon 1:50

yeah.

Debkanya 1:50

Right. It's a big thing. They love the music as well. So there's been a, there's been a great relationship between the two countries for many, many years. We are going right back to the time of the Cold War. Right.

Kiran Menon 2:01

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 2:01

this is something we've talked about very briefly. The Cold War was when the Soviet Union. Russia wasn't always Russia. Russia at that time was called the Soviet Union. It was a much bigger, collection of countries. Um, the Soviet Union and the US were not talking to each other. They were not friends. And that was called the Cold War. Right.

Kiran Menon 2:20

Yeah.

Debkanya 2:20

From that time, India has always been kind of saying that, we will be allies with Russia as well.

Kiran Menon 2:27

So a big reason for that relationship has been actually oil. Has been a lot of oil. 'cause Russia is fundamentally an oil state, which means they produce a huge amount of oil that can be exported out into different countries, into different regions. Um, you know, Europe has a lot of Russian oil that's going in. India is one of the biggest sort of, uh, buyers of Russian oil. And so everything from our electricity to our petrol to all of that, a lot of it comes from. And so India has been very dependent on Russia for that. India is not an oil making country, right, per se. I mean, yeah, there are small little oil fields, but it's not big enough to sustain the number of people that we have. And so we do need oil from other countries, and Russia is one of those big, big, big importing countries for us.

Debkanya 3:21

Yeah. And the other thing that we, India and Russia work together on a lot actually, joint cooperation, which means they both work on is defense, right? India buys a lot of weapons from Russia. We've bought fighter jets, we bought tanks, we bought submarines. Uh,

Kiran Menon 3:37

so.

Debkanya 3:37

you know, uh. Exactly. So

Kiran Menon 3:39

Yeah.

Debkanya 3:40

ton of weapons from Russia. We've even developed weapons together, uh,

Kiran Menon 3:44

Mm-hmm.

Debkanya 3:45

Scientists and researchers. So there's been a lot of cooperation on defense equipment and weaponry as well. Um, it

Kiran Menon 3:52

Yeah.

Debkanya 3:52

both countries obviously build up, their security.

Kiran Menon 3:55

And the third big reason that we've been very good friends is because of politics and the geopolitical environment. Right. And now especially. You know, think about it, when Trump came in, he started with all of his tariffs and, you know, a lot of clamp down against other countries products in the us and so. Countries started realigning themselves. Think about it, and we've given this analogy in one of the previous uh, episodes. Think of it as a big playground, right? The whole world is a big playground and you have multiple groups of friends who are playing, and then there's one bully who comes in and tries to break away another group, or starts kind of commanding over everyone else.

Debkanya 4:36

you are my friend, you can't be his friend. Basically.

Kiran Menon 4:39

Correct. Those kind of things. Right, which happens in every playground. Not necessarily great, but it happens similarly in the world playground as well. It happens, and so when us came so strongly, India started realigning itself more to Russia. Because you know, there are a few different countries which are fighting the most against the US from a tariff perspective who have suffered the most, and they are Russia, they're India, they're China, you know, and. Is really, really important because it's suddenly also the power shifting, right? China is one of the largest economies in the world. US still is the largest. China is, I think second or third., You have Russia, which is one of the largest countries in the world. You have India, which is again, one of the largest populations in the world. And so when you combine these three, it's pretty powerful, sort of, um, you know, dynamics and how it changes.

Debkanya 5:36

The fact that India chose to continue its friendship with Russia also says that India is trying to stand its own ground, right? We want to be

Kiran Menon 5:44

Correct.

Debkanya 5:44

as independent. We don't want to be seen as someone who can be influenced. Uh, by just anyone. And we will ultimately be looking out for our own interests first, right? We'll have to make sure that

Kiran Menon 5:56

Yeah,

Debkanya 5:57

are taking care of our own country's interests are taken care of, so that is

Kiran Menon 6:00

correct.

Debkanya 6:00

important and that is why are so interested in why Putin decided to visit. India and why he was meeting with, our Prime Minister Modi, why he was meeting with our president and various leaders. And they did have a lot of very important discussions, right. Kiran,

Kiran Menon 6:16

They did. Yeah.

Debkanya 6:17

trade, they've talked about, again, like we said, more, you know, oil. They've talked about, you know, cooperating on defense. Lots and lots of important things have been discussed.

Kiran Menon 6:26

One of the, uh, biggest things that, um, apart from oil and defense is also nuclear power. So Russia is actually helping India build nuclear power plants, which can help. Um, you know, generate electricity so we don't have to depend on coal. We don't have to depend on fossil fuels. Instead, we can have a nuclear power plant, which is basically providing a lot of electricity to multiple regions within India. And this is a nuclear power plant that they're building in a place called Kundankulam. Uh, it's in the south and uh, you know, it'll create a lot of electricity for Indian homes and businesses and all of that. So Russia is a big, big partner and is the main partner in building this as well. So that was one of the key things that was discussed.

Debkanya 7:12

The other thing that caught my, um, uh, interest was actually caught my eye was uh, they also talked about how, uh, they wanna improve relationships between the two countries by making sure people can visit the two countries more

Kiran Menon 7:26

Yeah.

Debkanya 7:26

Uh, so I saw that they basically announced, India has actually announced that now people from Russia, Russian citizens can get a free 30 day tourist visa. E visa to come

Kiran Menon 7:38

Yep.

Debkanya 7:39

so it's easier for them to come for work, to come to visit, and basically just overall improve an understanding or cultural understanding, uh, between the two countries.

Kiran Menon 7:48

And they also signed some agreements about, moving of skilled workers from one country to another. So Indian skilled workers moving into the, into Russia. And, uh, you know, there were two new Indian consulates opened in two different cities in Russia. So, so there um. Different types of agreements. In fact, I think they also kind of coined this 2030 implementation plan or vision 2030

Debkanya 8:13

2030.

Kiran Menon 8:14

two. Vision 2030, which is basically the fact that they will increase the amount of trade that's happening between the two countries. So, uh, I think their ambition is to kind of hit a hundred billion dollars of trade between the two countries by 2030. That is a huge, huge, huge, huge, huge amount of money, right? This is a very, very ambitious goal of hitting a 100 billion by 2030..

Debkanya 8:41

And this is not only going to be just trading in oil and natural gas, right? Like we were saying, there's a lot of things that we, that India actually does buy from Russia, of course, besides the weapons as well. We buy fertilizers, we buy metals, we buy precious stones, we buy machinery, pharmaceuticals. So a whole bunch of different things that India actually, imports from Russia.

Kiran Menon 9:04

And the other thing is when we're talking about this trade, another big, um, sort of agreement or conversation was about,

Debkanya 9:12

Mm.

Kiran Menon 9:14

Often when two different countries have to trade with each other, I have to buy something from another country and that country has to buy something from my country. Usually the global standard has always been to talk about it in usds, in US dollars. And so you will always very often see a lot of pricing converted into US dollars. And then, you know, there's trade that happens. There's, there's a lot of foreign currency exchange. It gets very, very complicated. I'm not getting into that, but let's just say that very often it is a, a third currency that is used as the standard currency to, you know, buy and sell between two countries. But over here, what they have actually agreed on is that they will actually implement a payment system or an infrastructure to basically enable businesses to seamlessly transact in either rupees or rubles. Rubles is the currency of Russia,

Debkanya 10:12

Mm.

Kiran Menon 10:13

right? And so, um, it becomes really easy for businesses to transact and work with Russian. Similarly for Russia to work with Indian companies. So in Indian banks, for example, they'll enable Indian importers to pay for oil and other goods. Rupees. That is crazy, right? So they're buying oil from Russia. Usually it would've gotten converted to American dollars and then gotten converted to rubles. Now an Indian importer who's buying oil or any other. Pay, which is huge. That's huge. You don't lose a lot in transaction value and things like that. So I think that system of inter, inter.

Debkanya 10:58

Yeah. And, and now I wonder, I mean, all these announcements have been made. Of course. I wonder what, uh, Trump's reaction is going to be. all of this. He's not going to be happy with a lot of these agreements that have been signed and all, a lot of these deals that have been made because it's essentially cutting the US out, right? We don't, we are pretty much saying that, Hey, we don't need you. We can do this between the two countries, and we don't need the US involvement at all. That's gonna be interesting to watch. I think it's a, it's a very strong message actually that they're

Kiran Menon 11:28

It's

Debkanya 11:28

international community in general. Right. I mean, see there's been so much talk about how, what, where does India stand in this whole Ukraine conflict? Right. Because that has

Kiran Menon 11:37

correct.

Debkanya 11:38

biggest bone of contention. 'cause Russia ultimately has been going into Ukraine and chipping away at parts of that country and saying, this is mine. This is mine, and that is mine. There's been a lot of, um backlash that Russia has been dealing with from European countries, as well as from the US. But India has always said that we are going to stay out of this. We are not going to get involved. We want peace. India has always said that we want peace, we want a peaceable solution. Russia's also saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, we want peace too. So we are in agreement there and they've left it at that. Right. That we should, we want to arrive at a

Kiran Menon 12:12

Yeah,

Debkanya 12:12

to this Ukraine

Kiran Menon 12:13

it.

Debkanya 12:15

Yeah. Because, correct, But yeah, so that's the, that's the message that's going on. So it's gonna be interesting to see what the reactions are going to be.

Kiran Menon 12:24

Yes, so. And seeing where our country is going. It's very, very interesting because we're, like you said, standing on our own two feet. We don't want to be dependent on any one particular country. It's not like we have stopped trade with the US. We still trade a lot with the US, but we're not playing this friend game on the playground. We are saying, Hey, we are very confident of ourselves. Different people because we want to play with different people. It's not about, you know, favoritism or any of that. So it's very strong message from from India. Which brings us to the one and only quiz.

Debkanya 13:14

Yay. Yes, it's my favorite time, as you all know. I am the quiz master of Takaro Kids, Kiran. That crown is only mine, as you know very well.

Kiran Menon 13:26

Hundred percent.

Debkanya 13:27

so the quiz question for this week's episode of Takaro Kids is, how long has Vladimir Putin been President of Russia? Okay. Yeah, quite some time. There are options for you. Option one, has he been president for five years? Has he been president for 10 years, 14 years, or 24 years? Pick the correct answer. Send it into us at www.takarokids.com or you can send it to us on Instagram. Get an adult to help you do that, and we will be picking one lucky winner.

Kiran Menon 14:12

The way it happens is there's a lucky draw. Doesn't matter if you're first to send it, if you're the last to send it. If you've sent it multiple times in the past for different quizzes, you won in the past, it doesn't matter. Send it to us. And last week's quiz question was.

Debkanya 14:29

Well, it was one of my favorites actually. What is the extinct antelope in the Sahara, which has been brought back from extinction? What is it called now? We gave you options there as well. Option one was the Scimitar Horned Oryx. option two was Blackbuck. Option three was Impala. Option four was the Sable antelope. What was the correct answer? Kiran?

Kiran Menon 14:57

The, and

Debkanya 14:59

Very

Kiran Menon 14:59

it was a, a super cool winner this time. you know, usually we have individuals who are sending in their answers, In Bangalore called Papagoya, and apparently every week they actually play the Takaro Kids episode for their entire class.

Debkanya 15:27

Isn't

Kiran Menon 15:27

Right. And for all classes.

Debkanya 15:28

so cool?

Kiran Menon 15:29

That is so cool. Yeah. And hey, Papagoya kids if you're listening. Um, but. They in the answer and the right answer, which is similars was sent in by the sixth graders from Papagoya,

Debkanya 15:46

The entire class!.

Kiran Menon 15:47

The entire class. So they have actually sent in the answer as the sixth graders. And so This's winner is the sixth graders from Papagoya. You know, they also had a message. They said, Hey, we understand we all don't want the shirts, but in fact. Certificate amount is, maybe we can use that and maybe give it to a charity or to an organization that needs it. That is beautiful.

Debkanya 16:15

I think these kids are so cool. You are, um, an inspiration and we are super proud of you. Well done on winning and well done on choosing to share your winnings with with someone else.

Kiran Menon 16:31

Yeah, it's super impressive. And actually, you know, Papagoya, you've given us a great idea. If there are any other schools out there who wanna play Takaro kids every week as their sort of news for kids of different ages. Feel free to reach out to us or just put it on every week. Just go onto Spotify, go onto Apple Music, whatever the podcasting app is, and, play the Takaro podcast. It's a great idea. So congrats again, Papagoya sixth graders, and until next week,

Debkanya 17:04

It's time to say goodbye.

Kiran Menon 17:06

bye.