Two months after they met in Moscow, Russian President Vladmir Putin on Thursday proposed a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan next month when NSA Ajit Doval called on him in St Petersburg.
The Kremlin quoted Putin, “We will be expecting Mr Modi in Kazan. I also suggest holding a bilateral meeting there on October 22 in order to review the results of our joint work to implement the agreements reached during his visit to Moscow and outline some plans for the near future.”
After the meeting between Putin and Doval, the Kremlin said, “On September 12, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had a meeting with Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, at the Konstantinovsky Palace in St Petersburg.”
“During the conversation, Vladimir Putin noted the successful development of the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between India and Russia and stressed the importance of security issues in bilateral relations, thanking the Indian Side for maintaining dialogue in this area,” it said.
It said that “Russia’s President proposed to hold a bilateral meeting with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 22, on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan to summarise the outcomes of joint work on the implementation of the agreements reached during his visit to Moscow and to outline prospects for the near future.”
“Ajit Doval, in turn, conveyed the words of gratitude from the Prime Minister. He also informed about Narendra Modi’s readiness to share information on his recent visit to Ukraine,” it said.
The Putin-Doval meeting took place about three weeks after Modi travelled to Kyiv on August 23 and held talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Doval is in St Petersburg to attend a conclave of national security advisors of the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) nations.
The summit of the grouping will be held in the Russian city of Kazan from October 22-24. Modi is likely to attend the summit.
On Wednesday, the NSA held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu focusing on important issues of “mutual interests”.
“Both sides reviewed progress in bilateral cooperation and discussed important issues of mutual interest,” the Indian embassy in Russia said of the talks between Doval and Shoigu.
In his talks with Zelenskyy, Modi said both Ukraine and Russia should sit together without wasting time to end the ongoing war and that India was ready to play an “active role” to restore peace in the region.
The article originally appeared on Indian Express.
