India PM Narendra Modi meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to meet President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday, marking his first visit to the Kremlin since the invasion of Ukraine.

Their meeting will be significant as it will be the Indian prime minister’s first overseas bilateral visit since being re-elected for an unprecedented third term in June.

The two leaders are expected to strengthen the development of “traditional friendly relations between Russia and India” and discuss “topical issues on the international and regional agenda.” The Kremlin last week.

Indian External Affairs Minister Vinay Kwatra said the meeting would be an opportunity for the two countries to review a range of bilateral issues, from defence and trade to investment ties and energy cooperation. At the media briefing on friday.

Kwatra said Russia and India will also assess the status of their bilateral engagement in groupings such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the G20, the BRICS Association of Developing Countries, the United Nations and the East Asia Summit.

“The issue of early discharge of Indian nationals wrongly enlisted in the Russian Army is also expected to come up in the talks,” Kwatra added.

Since March, India The South Asian country has called for the release of its citizens who it says were “tricked” into joining the Russian military after uncovering what it called a “massive human trafficking network”.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered a wave of sanctions from the Group of Seven and other countries as world leaders sought to cut off or limit Moscow’s war funding. The Kremlin has insisted on calling the invasion a “special military operation.”

India has refrained from directly criticising Putin, Maintained neutral stance against Russian aggression in UkraineHe urged both sides to end the war. But while the Indian government condemned the killing of civilians in the early days of the Ukraine conflict, it did not hold Russia responsible.

PM Modi’s visit to the Kremlin Meeting with G7 Leaders Last month in Italy, a coalition of industrialized nations consisting of the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom Funding Ukraine’s war against Russia With profits from frozen Kremlin assets.

India and Russia shared a longstanding security cooperation partnership Since the Cold War, the Indian military has been heavily dependent on Moscow for military equipment.

Modi last visited Russia in 2019, when he travelled to the Far Eastern port city of Vladivostok for an economic forum. The two last met in person in 2022 at a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting in Uzbekistan, where Modi told the Russian president that now was not the time for war but stopped short of condemning his actions in Ukraine.

Russia, like the United States, occupies a unique place in India’s foreign policy. Former Indian External Affairs Minister Kanwal Sibal said in a recent post on social media platform ‘X’:

“Neither India nor the global south considers Putin an international pariah,” the former ambassador to Russia added.

Bilateral trade between India and Russia grew 33% in the fiscal year ending March 2024. Record high of $65.7 billionHowever, trade remains unbalanced, Kwatra noted.

India’s exports to Russia were worth $4.26 billion, while imports from the Kremlin stood at nearly $61.44 billion, according to official data.

Modi will fly to Vienna, Austria on Tuesday after completing a two-day visit to Russia, the first such visit by an Indian prime minister in 41 years.