NEW DELHI: Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov is expected to travel to India next month, as India and Russia look to firm up the agenda for President Vladimir Putin’s visit later this year for the annual India-Russia summit. While the date hasn’t been finalised yet, the visit by Lavrov may take place in the third week of June.
PM Narendra Modi had reiterated India’s invite to Putin for the summit when the leaders spoke after the Pahalgam terrorist attack and the latter had again accepted the invitation. During that conversation, Putin had agreed with Modi on the need for an “uncompromising” fight against terrorism and also stressed that the perpetrators and their backers had to be brought to justice.
NSA Ajit Doval is also expected to visit Moscow next month for the 13th international meeting of high representatives for security issues on May 27-29 for which Russia has invited more than 150 countries.
While Modi had twice visited Russia last year – first for the annual summit and later for BRICS – Putin’s upcoming visit will be his first to India since the Russia-Ukraine war broke out in February 2022. The summit this year will provide an opportunity for the leaders to review defence and security cooperation, facilitation of mutual energy security, ongoing cooperation to ramp up bilateral trade to $ 100 billion by 2030 and use of national currencies for bilateral settlement. India wants to increase its supplies of goods to Russia for a more balanced trade relationship.
The Modi-Putin summit was expected to take place early this year but Putin has remained preoccupied with the Ukraine war and ongoing international efforts to broker peace. The annual bilateral summit is the highest institutionalized dialogue mechanism between India and Russia, something which both sides attach great importance to even as the leaders meet regularly on the margins of multilateral summits like BRICS and SCO.
The BRICS summit will be held in Brazil in July this year, and China will host the SCO event in late August or early September. However, while Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected at the BRICS summit, there’s uncertainty about Putin’s participation. Similarly, whether or not Putin and Modi will meet at the SCO summit is unclear as the latter is yet to confirm his presence at the event.