Metropolitan Kirill meets with Russian Ambassador to India V. Trubnikov

Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, DECR MP Chairman, met with the RF Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to India V. Trubnikov, who came to Moscow in connection with the official visit of the Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh to Russia. The meeting was held in the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate on December 12, 2005.

The Russian Ambassador to India thanked Metropolitan Kirill for regular visits of DECR clergymen to India for celebrating Christmas and Easter services. Among those who attend festival services are not only Russians residing in India, but also representatives of Ukraine, Byelorussia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus and other Orthodox countries. V. Trubnikov wished Orthodox believers in India would have an opportunity to receive regular pastoral care from the priests of the Russian Orthodox Church. The parties also discussed organizational questions of organizing church services in India.

The participants also examined the prospects of further development of the relations between our countries and discussed participation of representatives of traditional Hinduism in the summit of world religions, which is to take place in Moscow in 2006.

Among the participants also were V. Khrisanfov, staff-member of the Russian Embassy in India, and D. Petrovsky, DECR MP staff-member.