NEW DELHI: Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has given a go-by to personal attendance at high-profile global summits including of the BRICS and G20, may soon travel to his country's east to meet his counterpart from a secretive neighbour and discuss a mutually beneficial exchange of defence equipment and technology, as per growing media speculation.
The meeting between President Putin and North Korean supremo Kim Jong Un - who has not been out of his country since he ordered its borders closed in wake of the 2020 Covid outbreak - is being deemed as between leaders of two "pariah nations" - both at the receiving end of widespread sanctions. However, it must be noted that these sanctions are overwhelmingly from Western powers - and their Asian allies - and for Russia, at least, a wide swathe of the world across Asia - especially India and China, Africa, and South America, it is business as usual - more or less.
And North Korea is not entirely alone too - both Russia and China have been old allies, and though they may have agreed to sanctions against it over its nuclear weapons programme and are unlikely to back it in any reckless adventure, they acknowledge its use in keeping the US, South Korea, and Japan on edge.
The prospects of conventional arms for Russia in exchange for technical know-how for North Korea, which has just announced the launch of a new tactical nuclear attack submarine but has recently witnessed the failure of two attempts to launch a satellite, was strengthened by the recent visit of Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to Pyongyang - the first such visit since dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. (IANS)
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