Confident talks will strengthen India-Russia partnership: Modi

Smita Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi,  May 20

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday hoped his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin would boost ties between New Delhi and Moscow. 

The Prime Minister, who will be in Sochi—a city on the coast of the Black Sea—on Monday for a daylong visit, said in tweets just before he left on Sunday. 

“Greetings to the friendly people of Russia.  I look forward to my visit to Sochi tomorrow and my meeting with President Putin.  It is always a pleasure to meet him.”

“Am confident the talks with President Putin will further strengthen the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between India and Russia.”

The Prime Minister will hold talks, mostly one-on-ones, for 4-5 hours with Putin.

Senior sources told the Tribune that the ongoing global turmoil; Russia’s increasingly strained relationships with United States, United Kingdom and the West; the war situation in Syria; and the US pulling out of the historic Iran nuclear deal will be part of the talks.

The two leaders are also likely to discuss possible US secondary sanctions under Countering America's Adversaries through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which penalises countries that have dealings with Russia—India’s largest military supplier.

New Delhi will assure the Kremlin that it remains ‘a reliable and trusted partner’ despite its steadily growing defence dealings with US and Israel.

“We will not allow our defence requirements to be dictated by any other country Whatever is in India’s interest in procuring for national security will determine the manner in which we procure,” an official source said. 

The summit indicates that Prime Minister Modi’s government is keen on resetting ties with neighbours and major world powers through informal meetings, which require no joint statements, as it enters its last year. 

General elections are scheduled for 2019. 

This is the first meeting between the two leaders since Putin was re-elected for a fourth term in March.

Modi had proposed an informal meeting when he called to congratulate the Russian strongman on his re-election in March, as well as before the Indian Prime Minister met China’s Xi Jinping in April. 

The meeting comes at a time of a perceptible drift in India-Russia relations. Moscow has reservations about growing proximity with Washington, while India in turn worries about  Russia’s increasing military exchanges and defence dealings with Pakistan.