Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi is scheduled to pay a two-day visit to Russia from July 8 to 9, 2024, for the 22nd India-Russia summit that will review the entire range of multi-faceted ties between the two countries.
It is the Indian Prime Minister’s first trip to Russia since it invaded Ukraine.
Indian Foreign Secretary, Vinay Kwatra disclosed that issues of regional and global interest will be on the agenda of the talks between Modi and President Vladimir Putin.
Modi and Putin will discuss “prospects for further development of traditionally friendly Russian-Indian relations, as well as relevant issues on the international and regional agenda,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
Modi has met Putin several times since at international summits and the leaders have spoken often by phone.
Putin last met Modi in September 2022 at a summit of the SCO in Uzbekistan. In 2021, Putin also travelled to Delhi and held talks with the Indian leader.
Monday’s trip is expected to reaffirm the longstanding ties between the two countries, which date back to the cold war. Russia remains one of India’s most important trading partners, particularly on weapons and defence.
India’s ministry of external affairs said that the two leaders would “review the entire range of multifaceted relations between the two countries and exchange views on contemporary regional and global issues of mutual interest”.
The ministry added that after concluding his trip to Russia, Modi will travel to Austria, which will be the first visit by an Indian prime minister to that country in 41 years.
Delhi’s importance as a key trading partner for Moscow has grown since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Under Modi’s leadership, India has avoided condemning Russia’s action in Ukraine while emphasising the need for a peaceful settlement.
India and China have become key buyers of Russian oil after sanctions imposed by the US and its allies that shut most western markets for Russian exports.
The partnership between Moscow and Delhi has become fraught, however, since Russia started developing closer ties with India’s main rival, China, because of the hostilities in Ukraine.
Modi sent his Foreign Minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at its annual meeting in the Kazakhstan capital, Astana, which was also attended by Putin and the Chinese President, Xi Jinping.
Modi’s increasingly close relationship to the US has also tested relations with Russia.
On Thursday, the US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, said his country was in continuous communications with India about working together to hold Russia “to account”.
India Giving Indications Of Unresolved Tensions With Beijing
According to Analysts, Modi’s absence at the meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and his scheduled visit to Moscow are a sign of New Delhi’s unresolved tensions with Beijing over their border issues, its desire to maintain strong ties with Moscow and its strategic efforts at balancing relations between the two.
Harsh Pant, an International Relations Professor at King’s College London, said that Modi probably wanted to avoid “the optics of meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping” to signal that the “top Indian leadership will not engage with China at the highest level unless something changes in the Chinese approach” to resolving the border issue.
At the same time, Modi wanted to emphasise the importance of India’s historically strong ties with Russia by planning a visit, Pant said.
Pant noted, “This will be his [Modi’s] first visit to Russia in his third term. He is underscoring the importance of this relationship.”
“India would not like to see Russia completely falling into the Chinese sphere,” Pant said, adding that Modi wanted ties between India and Russia to balance out Moscow’s relationship with China.
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