India and Russia signed the working plan of the Joint Russian-Indian Commission on the Cooperation in the Field of Emergency Management for 2025-2026 on Wednesday (August 28, 2024).
Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai and Kurenkov Aleksandr Vyacheslavovich, Minister of the Russian Federation for Civil Defence, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters (EMERCOM of Russia) signed the agreement in Moscow.
Both countries agreed to implement the plan during 2025-2026 and decided to continue the exchange of the best practices and lessons learnt in the field of disaster management. “This meeting is significant to draw a strategy for executing the previous agreements between India and Russia, such as the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) for cooperation in the field of Emergency Management in December 2010 and Regulation to establish the Indo-Russian Joint Commission for Cooperation (2013) in prevention and elimination of consequences of emergency situations,” a statement from Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said.
The first meeting of the commission was held in New Delhi in 2016.
“Within the overall framework of cooperation, the three specific issues were deliberated in the meeting: Use of space monitoring technologies for risks forecasting and emergency response. Exchange of experiences of responding to large-scale disasters. Cooperation in the field of training of fire and rescue specialists,” the statement said.
Based on the results of the meeting, the Indian and Russian delegations expressed their intentions to intensify joint efforts to develop cooperation in emergency management, exchange best practices, including disaster monitoring and forecasting, training of rescue specialists and firefighters and extend cooperation between the eminent educational and research institutions in both the countries.
It was decided that the next meeting of the commission will be held in India in 2026. “This working plan will give added impetus to the bilateral efforts and pave the way for up-gradation, mutual assistance in enhancing early warning systems and capacity building of both the countries in emergency preparedness, prevention, response and planning,” the Ministry said.
Vinay Kumar, Ambassador of India to Russia, Sanjeev Kumar Jindal, Additional Secretary, MHA, were present at the meeting.
