Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow

The two leaders are expected to strengthen the development of “traditionally friendly relations between Russia and India” as well as discuss “topical issues on international and regional agendas,” the Kremlin said last week.

The meeting will provide an opportunity for the two sides to review a range of bilateral issues – from defence and trade to investment ties and energy cooperation, Indian External Affairs Minister Vinay Kwatra said at a press briefing on Friday.

Russia and India will also assess the status of bilateral engagements in groupings such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Group of 20, the BRICS bloc of developing countries, the United Nations and the East Asia Summit, Kwatra said.

“The issue of early release of Indian nationals who were deceived into serving in the Russian army should also figure in the discussions,” Kwatra added.

Since March, India has been seeking the release of its nationals allegedly “duped” into serving in the Russian military, after the uncovering of what the South Asian nation called a “major human trafficking ring”.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered a series of sanctions from the Group of 7 and other countries as world leaders sought to cut off or limit Moscow’s ability to finance the war. The Kremlin insisted on calling the invasion a “special military operation.”

India has refrained from direct criticism of Putin but has maintained a neutral stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while urging both sides to end the war. New Delhi, however, has condemned the massacre of civilians in the early stages of the Ukrainian conflict but has not pinned the blame on Russia.

Modi’s visit to the Kremlin follows his meeting with G7 leaders in Italy last month, where the bloc of industrialised nations – comprising the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK – agreed to fund Ukraine’s war against Russia with profits from frozen Kremlin assets.

India and Russia share a long-standing security cooperation partnership dating back to the Cold War era, with New Delhi’s armed forces heavily dependent on Moscow for military equipment.

Modi’s last visit to Russia was in 2019, when he traveled to the far eastern port of Vladivostok for an economic forum. The two last met in person in 2022 at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan, where Modi told the Russian president that we were not in a time of war but stopped short of condemning his actions in Ukraine.

Russia, like the United States, has its own place in India’s foreign policy, former Indian External Affairs Minister Kanwal Sibal said in a recent post on social media platform X.

“Neither India nor the South considers Putin an international pariah,” the former ambassador to Russia added.

Trade between India and Russia increased by 33 per cent in the financial year ending March 2024, reaching a record high of $65.7 billion. However, the trade balance remains unbalanced, Kwatra said.

India’s exports to Russia stood at $4.26 billion, while imports from the Kremlin stood at nearly $61.44 billion, official data showed.

After his two-day visit to Russia, Modi will travel to Vienna, Austria on Tuesday, in what would be the first visit by an Indian prime minister in 41 years.