PM Modi arrives in Moscow, to hold talks with Prez Putin

On his first bilateral visit to Russia as he began his third consecutive term in office after elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Moscow on Monday evening, underlining the importance of sevendecades old India-Russia relationship.

- VINAY KUMAR

It is PM Modi’s first visit to Moscow since Russia launched its campaign in Ukraine. Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov received him at the airport.

“I look forward to further deepening special and privileged strategic partnership between our nations,” PM Modi said after landing in Moscow. He will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

PM Modi has been walking a diplomatic tightrope, treading a fine line between maintaining a longstanding relationship with Moscow and at the same time courting closer Western security ties.

“I look forward to reviewing all aspects of bilateral cooperation with my friend President Vladimir Putin and sharing perspectives on various regional and global issues,” PM Modi said in a statement before his departure to Moscow.

“We seek to play a supportive role for a peaceful and stable region.”

Russia is a key, reliable and trusted supplier of cutprice oil and weapons to India. Western powers have in recent years also cultivated ties with India as a bulwark against China and its growing influence in the Asia-Pacific.

PM Modi last visited Russia in 2019 and hosted Putin in Delhi two years later, weeks before Russia began its offensive against Ukraine.

India and Russia have maintained a close relationship since the Cold War, and Russia was for a long time India’s largest arms supplier. But Ukraine has stretched Russia’s arms supplies thin. Russia’s share of Indian imports of arms has shrunk considerably in recent years, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).