Russia's Putin to meet PM Modi in Delhi for summit talks on 6 December

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit India for summit talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 6, confirmed the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday.

At a media briefing, MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi explained that Putin will pay an official visit to India on December 6 for the 21st India-Russia annual summit. This summit had been postponed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Russia and India have a mechanism under which India's Prime Minister and the Russian President hold a summit meeting annually in order to review the entire gamut of ties. So far, 20 such Annual Summits have taken place alternatively in India and Russia. The summit is expected to produce specific outcomes in further expanding ties in areas of defence, trade and energy between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu will also visit India to hold the inaugural '2+2' ministerial dialogue between India and Russia on December 6, the Russian embassy has said. The Russian ministers will hold the talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

A spokesperson of the Russian embassy has explained that ministers are expected to have in-depth discussions of the key regional and international issues including the situation in the Asia-Pacific region and developments in Afghanistan and Syria.

The spokesperson further added that the two sides are also expected to exchange views on interaction within the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral.

"In future, consultations in this format are intended to be organised on a regular basis, alternately in Russia and India," the spokesperson said.

India has the '2+2' ministerial format of dialogue with very few countries including the US, Japan and Australia.

(With PTI Inputs)

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