Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday, his first visit to the Kremlin because the invasion of Ukraine.
Their meeting is critical as it’s the Indian prime minister's first bilateral trip abroad since he was re-elected to a rare third term in June.
The two heads of state wish to strengthen the event of the “traditionally friendly relations between Russia and India” and discuss “topical issues on the international and regional agenda”. The Kremlin said last week.
The meeting will provide a possibility for either side to debate a spread of bilateral issues, from defence and trade to investment relations and energy cooperation, said India's Foreign Minister Vinay Kwatra. in a press conference on Friday.
On the agenda
Russia and India may also assess the status of bilateral commitments in groupings comparable to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Group of 20, the BRICS bloc of developing countries, the United Nations and the East Asia Summit, Kwatra said.
“The issue of early release of Indian citizens lured into service in the Russian army is also expected to be a subject of discussion,” Kwatra added.
Since March, India has been demanding the discharge of Russian residents who were allegedly “duped” into serving within the Russian army. The South Asian country had previously uncovered a “large human trafficking network”.
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Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered a series of sanctions from the G7 and other countries as world leaders sought to stop or limit Moscow's ability to finance the war. The Kremlin insisted on calling the invasion a “special military operation.”
India has shunned openly criticizing Putin, but has maintained a neutral stance towards Russia's invasion of Ukraineand called on either side to finish the war. New Delhi, nevertheless, condemned the killing of civilians in the beginning of the Ukraine conflict, but didn’t blame Russia.
Modi’s visit to the Kremlin comes immediately after his Meeting with the Heads of State and Government of the G7 in Italy last month, where the bloc of industrialized nations – comprising the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom – agreed to finance Ukraine's war against Russia with profits from frozen Kremlin assets.
The historical ties between India and Russia
India and Russia have a long-term security cooperation partnership Since the Cold War, New Delhi's armed forces have been highly depending on Moscow's military equipment.
Modi's last visit to Russia was in 2019, when he visited the Far Eastern port city of Vladivostok as a part of an economic forum. The two last met in person in 2022 on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan, where Modi told the Russian president that this was not an era of war, but stopped wanting condemning his actions in Ukraine.
Like the United States, Russia has its own place in India's foreign policy. said former Indian Foreign Minister Kanwal Sibal in a recent post on the social media platform X.
“Neither India nor the global South see Putin as an international pariah,” added the previous ambassador to Russia.
India's bilateral trade with Russia increased by 33% within the fiscal yr ending March 2024. reached a historic high of 65.7 billion US dollarsHowever, an imbalance in trade still exists, Kwatra stressed.
According to official data, India's exports to Russia amounted to $4.26 billion, while imports from the Kremlin amounted to just about $61.44 billion.
After his two-day visit to Russia, Modi will travel to Vienna, Austria on Tuesday. It could be the primary visit by an Indian prime minister in 41 years.
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