India’s Educational Co-Op With Russia’s Mari El Republic Epitomizes Their Strategic Partnership
Indian-Mari educational cooperation is decades-long, mutually beneficial, and pervades all segments of their society, thus making it among the most perfect examples of their partnership in action. This explains why the US-led West’s Golden Billion is doomed to fail in its aggressive attempts to pressure India into dumping Russia since bonds like these can never be broken and are destined to continue strengthening no matter what.
The special and privileged Russian-Indian Strategic Partnership is the driving force of contemporary multipolar processes as explain here, here, here, here, and here, the details of which are beyond the scope of this analysis but should nevertheless be reviewed by intrepid readers. The purpose behind sharing this background is to establish the context in which the present piece will explain why India’s educational cooperation with Russia’s Mari El Republic epitomizes their relations.
Minister of Education of the Indian Embassy in Russia Subrata Das just visited this part of his host country and met with its new acting head Yury Zaitsev. The Republic’s official website reported on the words that they exchanged during that time, which coincided with the week-long Festival of Russian Culture in India. The readout drew attention to the emotional element of their mutually beneficial relations. According to Zaitsev:
“I want to note that good neighborly relations, cooperation in the economy, cultural sectors between the USSR, and now Russia, and India have always been significant for both countries. Indian films, products are familiar to us since childhood. We grew up with it. Of course, in our hearts, especially in the hearts of the older generation, India is a wonderful friendly country. I hope that cooperation with our university is fruitful. Many Indian students receive education from us. We see that friendship continues.”
In response, Minister Das said that:
“Friendship is very important, as well as relationships in the areas that you mentioned: these are the economy, the social sphere, education and other areas. And what is important are the results that individual regions of Russia achieve, such as Mari El. Students from India have been studying at the university for a long time, and they continue to come here to study.
In addition to the university, we can also say that we have other areas of cooperation with Mari El, and we want to develop them in different directions. The USSR has always been a good friend of India. Now the USSR and Russia are synonyms. The friendship between these countries is a friendship that has stood the test of time, and it continues despite all the situations that are happening in the world.”
Neither official was repeating platitudes but paying the deepest respect to one another’s countries.
The very fact that folks in the Mari El Republic that average foreigners never heard of before have such a passionate love of Indian culture and decades of fruitful cooperation with that country speaks to how popular their mutually beneficial relations are across all strata of Russian society. This sentiment is reciprocal and evidenced by the latest survey from India’s prestigious Observer Research Foundation proving that its youth hold Russia in higher regard than they do the US.
The Republic’s official website noted that most of the 1,300 Indian students at the Mari State University study at the Faculty of Medicine, which “is included in the World Directory of Medical Schools (WDOMS) and is also included in the list of universities recognized by the Medical Council of India.” It was this aspect of their cooperation that Minister Das touched upon in his remarks, which helped India achieve global renown in the medical field and thus contributed to its people’s passionate love for Russia.
The reason why India’s educational cooperation with Russia’s Mari El Republic epitomizes their strategic partnership is because it’s decades-long, mutually beneficial, and pervades all segments of their society. It’s among the most perfect examples of their partnership in action and thus explains why the US-led West’s Golden Billion is doomed to fail in its aggressive attempts to pressure India into dumping Russia. Bonds like these can never be broken and are destined to continue strengthening no matter what.