PM Modi had last visited Russia in 2019, when he had gone to Vladivostok for the 20th India-Russia Annual Summit.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Russia on July 8-9 to hold talks with President Vladimir Putin, Kremlin said on Thursday.
Putin and Modi will discuss prospects for further developing bilateral ties as well as international and regional issues, the Kremlin said in a statement.
The foreign ministry said that PM Modi and Putin will exchange views on contemporary regional and global issues of mutual interest, and review the entire range of multifaceted relations between the two countries.
A day earlier, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia had called India a “longtime friend of Russia”.
“We have relations of special privilege, strategic partnership with India. We cooperate in so many areas, and I think that will be a substantive conversation on the whole range of issues that our countries cooperate on,” Nebenzia said.
When asked what he expects will from the visit, Nebenzia said, “I expect Russian-Indian relations to blossom even better.”
Significance of the visit
This will be Modi’s first visit to Russia after it attacked Ukraine in February 2022, and is significant given India’s tactful diplomacy on ties with Moscow and the West in the backdrop of their hostility.
Modi had last visited Russia in 2019, when he had gone to Vladivostok for the 20th India-Russia Annual Summit.
Over the last two years, New Delhi has maintained a diplomatic stand balancing Russia and Ukraine. While it has not explicitly condemned the Russian invasion, it has called for an international probe into the Bucha massacre and has expressed concern over nuclear threats issued by Russian leaders. At the UN Security Council, India has taken a nuanced position and abstained from voting against Russia in several resolutions.
India has strategic ties with Moscow and a strong dependence on Russia for defence supplies. Ever since the war began, India has also been buying Russian oil at discounted prices to cushion the inflationary impact of rising oil prices.
The last in-person bilateral meeting between the two leaders took place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in September 2022. This was the time, when Modi had told Putin that “this is not the era of war” — a line later used in the formulation at the G20 summit in Bali in November 2022 and by other western leaders and interlocutors to press on Russia to end the war.
