Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Russia from July 8 to 9 at the invitation of President Vladimir Putin to attend the 22nd India-Russia Annual Summit. This high-level visit is expected to strengthen the multifaceted relations between the two nations. India's Ambassador to Russia, Vinay Kumar, highlighted the significance of the visit, stating, "The context of the visit is bilateral but certainly, global issues including the (Ukraine) war will be discussed. The leaders will exchange their views on developments."
On the subjects of defence, trade, and connectivity, Ambassador Kumar told news agency ANI, "In the last three years, trade has expanded and crossed almost $65 billion. We have two challenges. The first is to balance the trade since trade is heavily in favour of the Russian side. So, expanding India's trade basket, export items, and also increasing the quantity to better balance the trade while at the same time handling ways and means to sustain this growth in bilateral trade. We are looking at new items including agricultural products to export to Russia, ceramic tiles, auto components and engineering goods, chemical products, and of course pharmaceuticals which have been one of the traditional products that we have exported to Russia. We want to increase their volume and also add new items to the trade basket."
Defence collaboration remains a cornerstone of the bilateral relationship. Kumar remarked, "Defence is a very important pillar of the relationship. There are a number of platforms which India has got from Russia and their spare parts and also the manufacturing of many of the components and spare parts in India. A lot is being done already. We will discuss and look at further increasing and maintaining co-production of defence items in India."
Connectivity is very important for trade and so are people-to-people exchanges, he noted. "The International North-South Corridor is very much on the agenda and there has been some cargo movement along that. New routes are also coming up, the Arctic Route or the Northern Sea Route," he added.
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Kremlin On PM Modi's Russia Visit
Earlier, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov underscored the visit's importance, stating, "We are expecting a very important and full-fledged visit, which is crucial for Russian-Indian relations." He emphasised that the agenda will be extensive and will include both official and informal discussions. Peskov was quoted by the official Tass news agency saying, "It will be an official visit, and we hope that the heads will be able to talk in an informal way as well."
This visit will be Prime Minister Modi's first to Russia in nearly five years. His last visit was in 2019 when he attended an economic conclave in Vladivostok. The annual summit between the Indian Prime Minister and the Russian President represents the highest institutional dialogue mechanism in the strategic partnership between the two countries, with the previous summit held on December 6, 2021, in New Delhi.
The Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi has confirmed that the two leaders will review the entire range of relations between the two countries and exchange views on contemporary regional and global issues of mutual interest.