- Putin’s visit aims to boost trade amid Western sanctions.
- India balances ties with Russia and the United States amid trade talks.
- Modi and Putin will discuss defence, oil and nuclear energy today.
NEW DELHI: Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold summit talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Friday, aiming to boost trade with Russia’s top buyer of arms and maritime oil, as Western sanctions tighten their decades-old ties.
Putin is on his first visit to India in four years at a time when New Delhi is in talks with the United States for a trade deal to reduce punitive tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on its products over India’s purchases of Russian oil.
Moscow has been India’s top arms supplier for decades and has said it wants to import more Indian goods in an effort to boost trade to $100 billion by 2030, which has so far been skewed in its favor due to energy imports from New Delhi.
Since European countries reduced their dependence on Russian energy after Russia invaded Ukraine almost four years ago, India has increased its purchases of discounted Russian crude.
“India faces a conundrum: By taking steps to strengthen ties with either Moscow or Washington, New Delhi risks pushing back ties with the other,” Michael Kugelman, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, wrote this week in Foreign Policy magazine.
Modi and Putin are also expected to discuss other issues, including jobs and civil nuclear energy, and the sides are expected to announce new agreements to show the resilience of their relations.
Hugs and handshakes
The Indian leader greeted Putin with a hug and handshake as he walked the red carpet after arriving at an airport near New Delhi on Thursday for a two-day visit. Later, Modi hosted the Russian president for a private dinner at his residence.
A business and government delegation accompanied Putin on the visit, including his Defense Minister Andrei Belousov, who held talks with his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh on Thursday.
Belousov “stated that the Russian defense industry is ready to support India in becoming self-sufficient in the field of defense production,” India’s defense ministry said after the talks.
Putin arrived in India a day after holding talks with Trump’s top envoys about a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine, but they failed to reach a compromise.
India has resisted condemning Russia for the war and has called for peace through dialogue and diplomacy, while saying its ties with Moscow were being unfairly attacked by Western nations that continue to do business with Moscow when it suits them.
