PM Modi 'doing the right thing' by promoting Make in India: Putin

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin has once again lauded the 'Make in India' initiative and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is "doing the right thing" by promoting the policy.

In his address to the plenary session of the 8th Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok on Tuesday, Putin gave India's example while responding to a query about Russian-manufacture automobiles.

"You know, we did not have domestically made cars then, but we do now. It is true that they look more modest than Mercedes or Audi cars, which we bought in vast amounts in the 1990s, but this is not an issue.

"I think that we should emulate many of our partners, for example, India. They are focused on the manufacture and use of Indian-made vehicles.

"I think that Prime Minister Modi is doing the right thing in promoting the 'Make in India' programme. He is right," the Russian leader said.

He went on to say that it is "absolutely fine" to use Russian-made automobiles.

"This will not lead to any infringements of our WTO obligations, absolutely not. It will concern state purchases. We must create a certain chain regarding what cars different classes of officials can drive, so that they will use domestically-made cars.

"You probably know about the proposals to continue buying these cars. It would be easy to do, because the logistics are streamlined," Putin added.

In June while addressing an economic forum in Moscow, Putin had called Modi "a great friend of Russia" and praised the 'Make in India' initiative.

“Our friends in India and our big friend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, launched the ‘Make in India’ initiative several years ago. It has had a truly impressive effect on the Indian economy. It would do no harm to emulate what is working well, even if it was not us but our friends who created it,” the President had said.

The 'Make in India' initiative was launched by Prime Minister Modi in 2014 aimed to to create and encourage companies to develop, manufacture and assemble products made in the country and incentivise dedicated investments into manufacturing.

Putin and Modi last met on the sidelines of a regional security bloc summit in Uzbekistan in September 2022.

The President did not attend the G20 Summit held in New Delhi on September 9-10. He was represented by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.