Putin India Visit: According to highly placed sources, Russian President Putin will arrive in Delhi post noon and be in India for just 6-7 hours.
New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin is coming to India on Monday on a brief but significant visit. He will be in New Delhi only for a few hours, and his talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi will focus on strengthening India-Russia relations. Around a dozen agreements in the fields of energy, space technology and weapons production will be signed during the visit.
According to highly placed sources, Russian President Putin will arrive in Delhi post noon and stay for a around 6-7 hours. There will be a round of intensive talks between the two countries at varied levels.
PM Modi and Putin will be meeting for the 21st round of India-Russia Summit. The meeting between the two leaders will be held at Hyderabad House in Delhi at 5.30 pm. There will also be a round of direct and informal talks between the two leaders.
In view of the growing concerns over the Omicron variant of Covid-19, and adhering to the pandemic protocols, the number of officials in the discussions between the two countries has been kept very limited. Putin will leave around 9:30 pm Monday.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, both the leaders during the summit will set new standards for a special global partnership between India and Russia and mutual cooperation.
The first 2+2 talks between the two countries are also on the agenda. The decision to hold a joint meeting of foreign and defence ministers was made during a telephonic conversation between Modi and Putin in April 2021.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived in India Sunday for the talks.
The defence ministers of India and Russia attended an Inter-Governmental Group meeting on military and technical cooperation Monday, while the foreign ministers of both nations also had parallel meetings. The defence and foreign ministers of the two countries will further the partnership plans on the 2+2 negotiating table.
According to official sources privy to the preparations for the India-Russia Summit, the two countries are to sign several important agreements on Monday.
There will be discussions on advancing a comprehensive project such as the International North-South Trade Corridor that paves a way for India to connect with Central Asia and Russia. India has already proposed to link Chabahar port built in Iran with INSDC.
The talks between President Putin and PM Modi will also seal the agreement for joint production of the AK-203 assault rifle. Under this, more than 5 lakh AK-203 advanced rifles are to be produced in Amethi, India.
Before President Putin’s visit, CCS, the government’s most powerful body on security issues in India, approved the draft agreement. Indo-Russian Rifle Pvt Ltd, a joint venture for this rifle production project, has been created. This includes companies such as Indian company Advanced Weapon and Equipment India Limited and Russia’s Rosboron Export and Kalashnikov.
In this series of arms deals, there will also be talks about S400 missile system. According to sources, the meeting will bring clarity on some issues, including the delivery schedule, in this deal signed between both the countries in 2018.
It should be noted that the US has warned against the $5 billion-plus missile deal.
However, India has also made it clear that it is not going to be pressurised by the US in this regard. On questions raised on this topic, the External Affairs Ministry spokesperson had said that India executes its arms deals on the basis of regional needs and sovereign rights. It is part of India’s conduct of following independent foreign policy and maintaining strategic autonomy.
According to the sources, apart from bilateral issues, the India-Russia Summit table also has an agenda for many regional and international issues. This includes a range of issues ranging from the situation in Afghanistan, the challenge of terrorism and narcotics in the central region to reforming global institutions and strengthening the multilateral system
President Putin’s continuation of plans of visit to India, even in the midst of the complex situation of Covid, shows his resolve towards relations between the two countries.
It may be noted that President Putin has gone out of Russia only once since the beginning of the pandemic. He went to Switzerland earlier where he met US President Joe Biden. His second foreign tour during the Covid period is to India where he will be meeting PM Modi. This will be the two leaders’ first in-person meeting since the Brasilia meet in November 2019.
However, during all this time, there have been phone conversations between PM Modi and President Putin at least six times. The two have also been part of many multilateral virtual meetings during this time.
