Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to visit India in December, his aide announced on Friday.
Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, informed reporters that the Russian leader will speak with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China about his impending December visit. SCO, founded by China and Russia in 2001 with an emphasis on security in Central Asia and the surrounding region, will host Putin and Modi on the sidelines of its annual meeting.
The meeting between Putin and Modi and comes amid the imposition of 50 per cent tariffs on India by US President Donald Trump, including 25 per cent penalty tariffs on account of the country’s purchase of Russian oil.
As part of his four-day visit to China from Aug 31 to Sept 3, Putin is attending the summit and participating in many bilateral meetings on the sidelines.
In Beijing, Putin will also attend a huge military parade marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and have lengthy discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Kremlin said.
In addition to his meeting with Modi, the Russian leader is also expected to have bilateral meetings with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, among others, Ushakov said.
According to Ushakov, Russian authorities were also “working on the possibility of a bilateral meeting” between Putin and the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un in Beijing, where the latter will also be present at the parade.
Ushakov said that though Putin and Modi “have repeatedly maintained contact by telephone,” their meeting will be the first this year.
Modi visited Russia twice last year: once in July for discussions with Putin in Moscow, his first visit since the country’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and again for the BRICS summit of developing nations in Kazan in October.
India and Russia enjoyed close relations during the Cold War, and since the Ukraine war, New Delhi has become an increasingly significant trading partner of Moscow.
Modi has emphasised a peaceful resolution to the Ukraine war without denouncing Russia. But as Russia has gotten closer to China in the face of Moscow’s international isolation over Ukraine, their relationship has grown more complex.
After the United States and its allies imposed sanctions that closed most Western markets to Russian exports, China and India became major buyers of Russian oil.
Due to the Ukraine war, for which he was issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC), Putin has drastically reduced his travel abroad.
India is not a party to the ICC hence not required to arrest Putin.