NEW DELHI, Dec 4: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi received the Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Delhi airport with a warm hug as he arrived on Thursday evening to begin his 2-day visit to India.
This is his first visit to India in four years. The talks between the two leaders are expected to focus on boosting defence ties, insulating bilateral trade from external pressure and exploring cooperation in small modular reactors
Mr Putin’s visit marks the 25th anniversary of the Strategic Partnership between India and Russia, established in October 2000. During the Russian President’s visit to India in December 2010, the Strategic Partnership was elevated to a “Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership.”
Mr Putin arrived in New Delhi on a two-day visit to further expand a nearly eight-decade India-Russia partnership that India views as a reaffirmation of one of its oldest and most resilient strategic partnerships in the world.
Mr Putin arrived at 6.35 PM at the Palam airport amidst warm reception from Mr Modi before both of them left the airport in the Prime Minister’s car. The PM will host him for a private dinner, a reciprocal gesture to the hospitality extended by the Russian leader during PM Modi’s visit to Moscow in July last year.
The summit itself will take place on Friday, preceded by a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan, and followed by a working lunch at Hyderabad House, the traditional venue for India’s highest-level bilateral engagements. President Putin is also scheduled to visit Rajghat in the morning to pay respects to Mahatma Gandhi.
The Russian President will later inaugurate a new India-based channel of the Russian state broadcaster, before attending a state banquet hosted in his honour by President Droupadi Murmu. He is expected to depart India around 9 pm on Friday. According to government sources, President Putin is travelling with a large group of businesspeople, with India expecting to improve the trade deficit with one of its oldest strategic partners.
Officials from both sides have said the summit would focus on three critical themes — defence, energy and trade. Government sources have said multiple agreements and MoUs are expected in the fields of shipping, healthcare, fertilisers, and connectivity.
On Thursday, ahead of the summit, the defence ministers of the two countries held wide-ranging talks that included India’s plan to procure additional batches of S-400 air defence systems and pending deliveries of military hardware delayed by the Ukraine war. The S-400 system, which India began receiving under a USD 5 billion deal signed in 2018, played a big role during Operation Sindoor.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said Russia may raise the possibility of supplying Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jets, an offer that would place Moscow directly in competition with Western contenders, including the Rafale, F-21, F/A-18 and Eurofighter Typhoon.
India remains one of the largest buyers of discounted Russian crude. But recent US sanctions on two major Russian oil producers have caused a noticeable dip in India’s purchases. President Putin’s trip comes at a time when India-US ties have entered what several Indian officials privately describe as “the most strained period in two decades.” Washington recently imposed a 50 per cent tariff on a range of Indian goods and a 25 per cent additional levy directly linked to India’s procurement of Russian oil.
Delhi Police have deployed over 5,000 personnel across central and New Delhi districts, with layered security involving SWAT teams, anti-terror squads, snipers at elevated locations, quick-reaction teams, anti-drone mechanisms, high-definition CCTV grids and technical surveillance systems ahead of the Russian President’s visit.
(Manas Dasgupta)
