New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs on Friday announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay an official visit to New Delhi on December 6 for the 21st India-Russia Annual Summit with PM Narendra Modi.
"Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay an official visit to New Delhi on 6th December for the 21st India-Russia Annual Summit with PM Narendra Modi": MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, as reported by news agency ANI.
During the negotiations with PM Narendra Modi, it is planned to discuss further development of relations of the special and privileged strategic partnership between the two countries, Russian Embassy stated.
It informed that the leaders will exchange views on topical issues on the international agenda, including joint work within the G20, BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
Besides the summit, the first '2+2' ministerial dialogue between the Foreign and Defence Ministers of both countries will also be held in Delhi on December 6.
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Union defence minister Rajnath Singh and Union external affairs minister Dr S Jaishankar will hold talks with their Russian counterparts — foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and defence minister Sergei Shoigu during their visit on December 5 and 6.
Earlier, the Russian embassy had informed about Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu's India visit to hold the inaugural '2+2' ministerial dialogue between the two countries.
"On December 6, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov together with Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu will hold talks in New Delhi with their Indian counterparts S Jaishankar and Rajnath Singh," a spokesperson of the embassy said, as quoted by news agency PTI.
He stated that the ministers are expected to have in-depth discussions of the key regional and international issues including the situation in the Asia-Pacific region and developments in Afghanistan and Syria.
Russia refers to the Indo-Pacific as Asia-Pacific.
The spokesperson stated that both sides are also expected to exchange views on interaction within the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral.
"In future, consultations in this format are intended to be organised on a regular basis, alternately in Russia and India," the spokesperson informed.
India has the '2+2' ministerial format of dialogue with very few countries including the US, Japan and Australia.
Modi - Putin Summit
As per the PTI report, the Modi-Putin summit is expected to produce specific outcomes in further expanding ties in areas of defence, trade and energy.
According to the inputs, India and Russia are going to firm up a number of agreements in the areas of defence, trade and investment, and science and technology at the summit.
A framework for military-technical cooperation is going to be renewed for the next decade at the summit along with an announcement on a joint commission on technology and science.
India and Russia have also reached the final phase of negotiation for a logistics support agreement and it is likely to be signed either during the two-plus-two talks or at the summit.
The agreement will enable militaries of the two countries to use each other's bases for repair and replenishment of supplies, besides facilitating scaling up of overall defence cooperation.
The summit was postponed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Both the countries have a mechanism under which India's prime minister and the Russian president hold a summit meeting annually to review the entire gamut of ties. So far, 20 Annual Summit meetings have taken place alternatively in India and Russia.
Russia, being a key pillar of New Delhi's foreign policy, has been a time-tested partner for India.
(With Inputs From Agencies)