Russian President Vladimir Putin is in New Delhi for his two-day India visit, where he will hold summit talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Friday, aiming to boost trade with the top buyer of Russia’s arms and seaborne oil as Western sanctions squeeze their decades-old ties. The Russian leader is on his first visit to India in four years at a time when New Delhi is engaged in talks with the US for a trade deal to cut punitive tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on its goods over India’s Russian oil purchases.
Moscow has been India’s top arms supplier for decades and has said that it wants to import more Indian goods in an effort to grow trade to $100 billion by 2030 that so far has been skewed in its favour due to New Delhi’s energy imports.
PM Modi and Putin are also expected to discuss other topics, including labour and civil nuclear energy, with the sides expected to announce new agreements to showcase the resilience of their relations.
Putin’s agenda on December 5 includes a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan, tributes at Rajghat, delegation-level talks with PM Modi, followed by a joint press statement, a business event with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and a meeting with President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan before his departure in the evening.
