File pic; courtesy: ANI
New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin will arrive in India on Monday to hold the 21st annual India-Russia summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This is set to be the first in-person meeting between PM Modi and President Putin after their meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Brasilia in November 2019, reported news agency ANI.
Despite the surging Omicron variant of COVID-19 affecting several bilateral and international summits, Putin decided to go ahead with the visit.
PM Modi and the Russian President will review the prospects of bilateral relations during the summit. The two leaders will discuss ways to further strengthen the strategic partnership between the two nations.
For both leaders, the annual summit is an option to recalibrate the long-standing alliance.
India and Russia will also hold the first 2+2 dialogue at the foreign and defence ministers’ level before the annual summit. The dialogue is likely to focus on “political and defence issues of mutual interest”.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and their Russian counterparts Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Shoigu will hold discussions.
“The agenda for the dialogue will cover political and defence issues of mutual interest. The establishment of this new mechanism of two plus two dialogue is expected to further strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi had earlier said.
Both countries are set to sign several bilateral agreements in various areas after the talks between Putin and PM Modi.
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