Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Moscow on Monday to a particularly warm and special reception at a private dinner hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin at his dacha in Novo-Ogaryovo near Moscow.
The two leaders will meet in Moscow on July 9 on the sidelines of the annual Russia-India summit. The previous summit, the 21st, was held in New Delhi in December 2021.
This is the first foreign trip by an Indian prime minister after his re-election for a third term. This time he broke the tradition of travelling to other Hindu countries – Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives – that he had visited after previous elections.
Indian Foreign Minister Vinay Kwatra, at a special briefing ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Moscow, told reporters that the absence of recent summits and talks had piled up issues on the bilateral agenda that needed to be resolved.
At the meeting, the two leaders will discuss “prospects for the development of traditionally friendly Russian-Indian relations, as well as topical international and regional issues,” the Kremlin said. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov also announced a “significant, full-fledged visit,” emphasising that Modi and Putin will be able to meet in an informal setting as well. The talks will be held in a narrow and extended format, but there will be no press statements, he added.
Putin and Modi regularly talk on the phone, maintaining personal contacts. They last spoke on June 5, when the Russian president congratulated the Indian prime minister on his party’s election victory.
