Accelerating a privileged relationship; PM Modi accepts Putin’s proposal, to visit Russia in Sept

Bishkek, June 13: After accomplishing fruitful diplomatic talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Russian President Vladimir Putin and the two leaders reviewed all aspects of bilateral relations to further strengthen the bilateral strategic relationship.

This is the first meeting between the two leaders after Modi's re-election following the BJP's victory in the Lok Sabha elections last month. External Affairs Ministry (MEA) spokesperson Raveesh Kumar in a tweet described it as a “privileged relationship.”

 

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said PM Modi has accepted Putin's invitation to be the main guest at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in early September. India has begun its engagement with Russia on Arctic oil and gas. Since 2014, PM Modi and Russian President Putin have had 27 meetings. The Foreign Secretary further mentioned that there was no discussion on any international or regional issue as the focus was entirely on how to make Prime Minister's visit for the next annual summit successful.

PM Modi arrived in the Kyrgyz capital on Thursday for the SCO summit, the first multilateral engagement post his re-election. The SCO is a China-led eight-member economic and security bloc with India and Pakistan being admitted to the grouping in 2017.

PM Modi, Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a trilateral meeting, the second among the three countries after a gap of 12 years, on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires in December during which they underscored the benefits of a multilateral trading system and an open world economy for global growth and prosperity.

Earlier in October, Putin travelled to India for the 19th India-Russia annual summit during which he held comprehensive discussions with Modi on wide-ranging bilateral, regional and international issues. Russia has been one of India's key suppliers of arms and ammunition.