For decades West preferred military dictatorship next to us: Jaishankar

New Delhi, Oct 10: External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar while defending the use of Russian arms hit out at the Western nations for choosing military dictatorships as preferred partners and not supplying India with weapons for decades.

The remarks were made at a press conference along with his Australian counterpart Penny Wong after both the ministries held the 13th Foreign Ministers' Framework Dialogue.

We have a long-standing relationship with Russia, and this relationship has served our interests well.

We have a substantial inventory of Soviet and Russian origin weapons. This inventory grew for various reasons, including the West not supplying weapons to India for decades and in fact seeing the military dictatorship next to us as a preferred partner, Jaishankar said.

In international politics we make judgments, which are reflective of our future interests and current situation, Jaishankar added.

On Monday, Jaishankar held discussions on several issues including the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and also its repercussions on the Indo-Pacific region. We discussed Ukraine and its repercussions in the Indo-Pacific region, the progress in Quad, G-20 issues, our trilateral and somethings related to IAEA and climate finance sustainable development goals, he said.

"We have been very clearly against the conflict in Ukraine. We believe it does not serve the interest of anybody, the participants, or the international community. As the country of the global south, we have been seeing first hand how much it has impacted low-income countries. As PM Modi said in Samarkand, this is not an era of war," Jaishankar said.

He also added that discussions held were underpinned by the fact that as liberal democracies both countries believe in the rules based international order, in freedom of navigation in international waters, in promoting growth connectivity and security of all and ensuring that countries make sovereign choices in matters that are important today.

Australia's view as the chair of the G-20 next year will be very important, he said while expressing gratitude to Australia for joining India in celebrating the 75th anniversary of India's independence by decorating Australia's iconic sites.

"We spoke about a whole lot of issues - trade, economy, education, defence and security, clean energy and among the many agreements and understandings we reached. It is in our mutual interest to expand the diplomatic footprint in each other's country," the foreign minister said.

There are some issues in which we see great potential in terms of giving a greater quality to our bilateral partnership, the minister added.

"Steps are being taken to amend the double taxation avoidance agreement because that was a challenge to growing our business," Jaishankar said.

On the Khalistan issue, the minster said that from time to time we have engaged the Canadian government on this issue. We have flagged the need to ensure that freedoms in a democratic society are not misused by forces which actually advocate violence and bigotry.

Wong on the other hand highlighted that India and Australia are comprehensive strategic partners. India and Australia recognise that the Indo-Pacific region is being reshaped and it is in the interest of both nations to navigate through this together.

Most fundamentally, we share a region, the Indio Pacific region. We got a shared interest and shared ambition which is our region being stable, prosperous and respectable of sovereignty and where countries are not required to choose sides but make their own sovereign choices, Wong said.

"We both recognize that our region is being reshaped both economically and strategically. Our partnership is a demonstration that we understand that this period of change is best navigated together," she also said.

On Monday, Dr. Jaishankar arrived in Canberra to a 'Tiranga Welcome.' Arrived in Canberra to a Tiranga welcome. So happy to see the old Parliament house of Australia in our national colours, Jaishankar said in tweet. The minster would also be visiting Sydney.

This is the second visit by the foreign minister to Australia this year, the first being in February to attend the Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Melbourne.