Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India is expected at the end of August, a leading Russian news agency reported on August 7 citing comments made by National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval during his ongoing visit to Moscow. “We have now established very good relations, which we value very much, a strategic partnership between our countries. We interact at a high level… We were pleased to learn about President Putin’s visit to our country, scheduled for late August,” the Interfax news agency quoted NSA Doval as saying at a meeting with Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu in Moscow on August 7.
Earlier, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov had confirmed that Putin is expected to visit India following an invitation from Prime Minister Modi. The visit is being planned as part of the ongoing commitment to annual meetings between the two leaders. “Our leaders have an agreement to meet once a year. This time, it is our turn,” Ushakov had said during a press briefing. The last visit by the Russian President to India took place on December 6, 2021, during the 21st India-Russia Annual Summit in New Delhi.
PM Modi, meanwhile, held two high-profile visits to Russia last year, attending the 22nd Russia-India Summit in July and later participated in the BRICS Summit held in Kazan in October. Citing that the political dialogue between India and Russia is “developing dynamically” and is facilitated by the fact that Moscow and New Delhi “have close or even coinciding views on the objectively emerging multipolar world order”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had also indicated that preparations are being made for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s upcoming visit to India.
“Relations between our countries have a long history. It can be said that they have stood the test of time more than once. Today, Russia and India are developing equal cooperation based on sincere, mutual respect and consideration of each other’s interests,” Lavrov told the participants of the first international conference ‘Russia and India: Towards a New Agenda for Bilateral Relations’ which was also addressed by External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar in March, this year.
