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R Prasannan
R Prasannan

Obit

Ace diplomat Kadakin dead; India loses a great friend

Kadakin Alexander M. Kadakin | via rusembindia.com

Russian ambassador to India, Alexander M. Kadakin (68), died on Thursday morning following a heart attack. India lost a great friend.

One of the longest serving foreign diplomats in India (more than 13 years in two terms as ambassador), Kadakin had begun his diplomatic career as a probationer at the Russian embassy Delhi in August 1971, and had thus witnessed the firming up of Indo-Soviet friendship as a security treaty on the eve of the 1971 war.

Later, he served as the minister counsellor in the Russian Embassy in Delhi from 1989 to 1992. After serving elsewhere, including Nepal, he was posted as ambassador from 1999 to 2004, and later from 2009 till date, making him one of the longest-serving envoys to India.

Hailed as a passionate friend of India, Kadakin played a major role in strengthening the relations between the two countries, especially after the nuclear test of 1998. He played a major role in streamlining the defence relationship, particularly in ironing out the differences over the Admiral Gorshkov (now INS Vikramaditya) deal. The unique BrahMos cruise missile partnership between India and Russia is also largely credited to Kadakin's initiative.

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Topics : #obit

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