Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Moscow on Monday, beginning his two-day state visit to Russia and then Austria.
Upon his arrival at the Moscow airport, the prime minister was honored with a guard of honor. He was welcomed by Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister (1st DPM), Denis Manturov, who is senior to the Deputy Prime Minister who greeted Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Russia.
Manturov will accompany PM Modi to the hotel from the airport in the same car.
“Over the next three days, I will be in Russia and Austria. These visits are a wonderful opportunity to deepen ties with these nations, with whom India shares a time-tested friendship. I also look forward to interacting with the Indian community living in these countries,” the prime minister posted on X ahead of his departure to Russia.
This marks Prime Minister Modi’s first visit to Russia in five years, the last being in 2019 for an economic summit in Vladivostok. It is also his first visit since the Ukraine war began in 2022.
During the 22nd India-Russia annual summit on Tuesday, Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to discuss expanding bilateral relations in areas such as trade, energy, and defense. The annual summit is the highest institutional dialogue mechanism in the strategic partnership between the two countries, with 21 summits having taken place alternately in India and Russia so far. The last summit was held in New Delhi on December 6, 2021, with Putin visiting India for the event. Putin has visited India nine times as the head of the Russian state.
Modi and Putin last held bilateral talks on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on September 16, 2022. During that meeting, Modi emphasized the need to end the conflict in Ukraine, stating, “Today’s era is not of war.” The prime minister has had several phone conversations with both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, advocating for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis. India has not condemned Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and maintains that the conflict should be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue.
Following his visit to Russia, Modi will travel to Austria on Tuesday, marking the first visit by an Indian prime minister to Austria in over 40 years.
