New Delhi: The stage is set for the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Monday. This will be the first in-person meeting between the two after their meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in November 2019.
During the meeting, there will be a round of informal and delegation-level talks between the two leaders. PM Modi will also host a dinner in honor of President Putin at Hyderabad House.
The meeting assumes great significance as Modi and Putin will be discussing the bilateral relation and talk about ways to boost the strategic ties between the two countries.
The tradition of summit talks between India and Russia has been going on since 2000. Putin will be coming for talks being held in the 21st episode of this summit. With the latest visit of Putin, India and Russia are starting a tradition of 2+2 dialogue.
Before the India-Russia summit, there will be a meeting of the Defence Ministers of both the countries around 10 am. Along with this, the foreign ministers of India and Russia will also meet in parallel. However, there will be no media statements or question-answer sessions for both the meetings.
The meeting of Prime Minister Modi and President Putin in the evening will also be limited to photo operations only.
This is the first meeting between Putin and Modi since the establishment of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Both leaders have expressed their concerns over instability factors, including Islamic fundamentalism, terrorism and illicit drug trade. In the balance of power in the region, India's effort is to keep Russia on its side.
Russia's support is also important for India in terms of the ongoing border tension with China. It should be noted that the first meeting of the Defence and Foreign Ministers of India and China took place in Moscow amid the ongoing border tensions for the last 18 months.
India is supporting the INSTC (International North-South Trade Corridor) project extended by Russia against the BRI, partnered by China and Pakistan. India has already proposed to link the Chabahar port project built in Iran with INSTC.
The Modi-Putin meeting is crucial as many political experts question the relation between India and Russian in wake of improved ties of Russia with Pakistan and China. Other experts have also focused on the fact that India’s growing engagement with the US could be a stumbling block to its partnership with Moscow.
However, refuting these arguments, a Moscow-based political analyst has said that India-Russia ties would remain unaffected by third-party pressure.
Andrew Korybko, a political expert, in an email interview with news agency ANI, said, “Against the context of US-Russian tensions, and especially the US’s threats to sanction India under CAATSA for purchasing Russia’s S-400 air defence systems, this shows that the historical Russian-India axis – which is among the most enduring in the modern era – remains strong and isn’t affected by third parties’ pressure.”