Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in Moscow
New Delhi:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Moscow this night, marking the primary time he visited Russia because it launched its marketing campaign in Ukraine. Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov obtained him on the airport.
“I sit up for additional deepening particular and privileged strategic partnership between our nations,” PM Modi mentioned after touchdown in Moscow. He’ll maintain talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin tomorrow.
Landed in Moscow. Trying ahead to additional deepening the Particular and Privileged Strategic Partnership between our nations, particularly in futuristic areas of cooperation. Stronger ties between our nations will drastically profit our individuals. pic.twitter.com/oUE1aC00EN
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 8, 2024
Mr Putin hosted a personal dinner for PM Modi tonight forward of tomorrow’s twenty second India-Russia summit in Moscow.
“PM is ready to carry substantive discussions with President Vladimir Putin to take ahead the particular partnership between the 2 international locations. He will even work together with the Indian neighborhood in Russia,” Exterior Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal mentioned on X.
PM Modi has been treading a effective line between sustaining a longstanding relationship with Moscow and courting nearer Western safety ties. The go to can be PM Modi’s first since he returned to energy for a 3rd time period.
“I sit up for reviewing all elements of bilateral cooperation with my good friend President Vladimir Putin and sharing views on varied regional and international points,” PM Modi had mentioned in an announcement earlier than leaving India. “We search to play a supportive function for a peaceable and secure area.”
Russia is a key provider of cut-price oil and weapons to India. Western powers have in recent times additionally cultivated ties with India as a bulwark in opposition to China and its rising affect within the Asia-Pacific, whereas pressuring it to distance itself from Russia.
PM Modi final visited Russia in 2019 and hosted Mr Putin in Delhi two years later, weeks earlier than Russia started its offensive in opposition to Ukraine.
Sources mentioned the main focus of the go to is financial agenda – power, commerce, manufacturing, and fertiliser – and {that a} answer can’t be discovered on the battlefield.
India and Russia have maintained a detailed relationship for the reason that Chilly Conflict, and Russia was for a very long time India’s largest arms provider. However Ukraine has stretched Russia’s arms provides skinny. Russia’s share of Indian imports of arms has shrunk significantly in recent times, in keeping with the Stockholm Worldwide Peace Analysis Institute.
On the identical time, India has turn into a significant purchaser of Russian oil, offering a much-needed export marketplace for Moscow after it was minimize off from conventional patrons in Europe. That has dramatically reshaped power ties, with India saving itself billions of {dollars} whereas bolstering Moscow’s struggle coffers.
India’s month-on-month imports of Russian crude “elevated by eight per cent in Might, to the very best ranges since July 2023”, in keeping with commodity monitoring information compiled by the Centre for Analysis on Power and Clear Air.
From Russia, PM Modi will journey to Vienna for the primary go to to the Austrian capital by an Indian chief since former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1983.
