New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Russia on 21 May for an informal summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, an Indian foreign ministry statement said Monday.
The sudden visit is part of the “tradition of regular consultations between India and Russia at the highest levels,” the statement added.
A person familiar with the development declining to be named said this was not the regular annual summit between Indian and Russian leaders which takes place every year alternately in India and Russia. Modi had travelled to Russia last June and Putin is expected to visit India in October.
“Given today’s geo-political situation, it is a very, very good idea to reaffirm the India-Russia strategic partnership and hold consultations on how to react to situations, find commonality in views,” said P.S. Raghavan, a former Indian ambassador to Russia.
“We (India-Russia) need to rescue the strategic partnership from perceptions of deterioration,” he said.
“Today in some ways, the US-Russia relationship is in some ways worse than the Cold War days where there are tensions over Ukraine, Syria to Afghanistan,” Raghavan said.
According to the Indian statement, the summit is taking place at the invitation of Putin. Modi will visit Russia on 21 May for an informal Summit with President Putin in the city of Sochi, the statement said.
“This will be an important occasion for the two leaders to exchange views on international matters in a broad and long-term perspective with the objective of further strengthening our Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership,” it said adding, “both leaders will also discuss their respective national developmental priorities and bilateral matters.”
The Modi-Putin summit follows another informal summit between Modi and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Wuhan last month. The Modi-Putin summit comes amid a great deal of flux in the global order as well as at a time when India-Russia ties are seen as lacking the warmth they used to have -- raising speculation that the summit could aim at a possible reset in ties between India and Russia.
Russia’s seemingly cooling relations with India as well as a simultaneous warming of ties with Pakistan has been an issue raised by the opposition in India.
On the international front, the Modi-Putin summit comes after the US last week pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that is being backed by Europe, China and Russia, raising the spectre of higher oil prices and an uncertain future for foreign companies investing in Iran.
The Trump administration has indicated that it is willing to impose sanctions on European companies that do business in Iran. On the other hand, US President Donald Trump is to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on 12 June.
Ties between China and the US are also strained over what the US calls unequal trade between the two countries.
There is already tension between the US and Russia over the latter’s alleged interference in the 2016 US elections that brought Trump to power. These have been exacerbated by the alleged Russian hand in the poisoning of a former Russian intelligence official Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Britain’s Salisbury town in March. The US and Europe in March expelled scores of Russian diplomats, a move that Moscow reciprocated.
In this context, the India-Russia summit “is a very good idea,” Raghavan said.
Source: Livemint.com
The sudden visit is part of the “tradition of regular consultations between India and Russia at the highest levels,” the statement added.
A person familiar with the development declining to be named said this was not the regular annual summit between Indian and Russian leaders which takes place every year alternately in India and Russia. Modi had travelled to Russia last June and Putin is expected to visit India in October.
“Given today’s geo-political situation, it is a very, very good idea to reaffirm the India-Russia strategic partnership and hold consultations on how to react to situations, find commonality in views,” said P.S. Raghavan, a former Indian ambassador to Russia.
“We (India-Russia) need to rescue the strategic partnership from perceptions of deterioration,” he said.
“Today in some ways, the US-Russia relationship is in some ways worse than the Cold War days where there are tensions over Ukraine, Syria to Afghanistan,” Raghavan said.
According to the Indian statement, the summit is taking place at the invitation of Putin. Modi will visit Russia on 21 May for an informal Summit with President Putin in the city of Sochi, the statement said.
“This will be an important occasion for the two leaders to exchange views on international matters in a broad and long-term perspective with the objective of further strengthening our Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership,” it said adding, “both leaders will also discuss their respective national developmental priorities and bilateral matters.”
The Modi-Putin summit follows another informal summit between Modi and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Wuhan last month. The Modi-Putin summit comes amid a great deal of flux in the global order as well as at a time when India-Russia ties are seen as lacking the warmth they used to have -- raising speculation that the summit could aim at a possible reset in ties between India and Russia.
Russia’s seemingly cooling relations with India as well as a simultaneous warming of ties with Pakistan has been an issue raised by the opposition in India.
On the international front, the Modi-Putin summit comes after the US last week pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that is being backed by Europe, China and Russia, raising the spectre of higher oil prices and an uncertain future for foreign companies investing in Iran.
The Trump administration has indicated that it is willing to impose sanctions on European companies that do business in Iran. On the other hand, US President Donald Trump is to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on 12 June.
Ties between China and the US are also strained over what the US calls unequal trade between the two countries.
There is already tension between the US and Russia over the latter’s alleged interference in the 2016 US elections that brought Trump to power. These have been exacerbated by the alleged Russian hand in the poisoning of a former Russian intelligence official Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Britain’s Salisbury town in March. The US and Europe in March expelled scores of Russian diplomats, a move that Moscow reciprocated.
In this context, the India-Russia summit “is a very good idea,” Raghavan said.
Source: Livemint.com
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