India's Modi to meet Putin during visit to Russia amid Ukraine war

India’s prime minister has begun a two-day visit to Russia, his first since Moscow launched a war in Ukraine, which has complicated the relationship between the longtime allies and pushed Russia closer to India’s rival China.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit from Monday will include a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, whom he last saw in Russia in 2019, in the far eastern port of Vladivostok.

The two leaders also met in person in September 2022 in Uzbekistan, at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization bloc.

Russia has had strong ties with India since the Cold War, and New Delhi’s importance as a key trading partner for Moscow has grown since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

China and India have become key buyers of Russian oil following sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies that shut most Western markets off to Russian exports.

Under Modi’s leadership, India has avoided condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine while emphasising the need for a peaceful settlement.

The partnership between Moscow and New Delhi has become fraught, however, since Russia started developing closer ties with India’s main rival, China, because of the hostilities in Ukraine.

Modi notably stayed away last week from the most recent summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, in Kazakhstan.

Key buyer

Since Western sanctions blocked Russian oil exports after the start of the Ukraine war, India has become a key buyer of Russian oil. It now gets more than 40 percent of its oil imports from Russia, according to analysts.

India is also strongly dependent on Russia for military supplies, but with Moscow's supply line hit by the fighting in Ukraine, India has been diversifying its defence procurements, buying more from the US, Israel, France and Italy.

“Defense cooperation will clearly be a priority area,” Bajpaee said, adding that 60 percent of India's military equipment and systems are “still of Russian origin.”

“We've seen some delay in the deliveries of spare parts ... following the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” he said. "I believe both countries are due to conclude a military logistics agreement, which would pave the way for more defense exchanges.”

Trade development also will figure strongly in the talks, particularly intentions to develop a maritime corridor between India’s major port of Chennai and Vladivostok, the gateway to Russia’s Far East.

India-Russia trade has seen a sharp increase, touching close to $65 billion in the 2023-24 financial year, due to strong energy cooperation, Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra told reporters Friday.

Imports from Russia touched $60 billion and exports from India $4 billion in the 2023-24 financial year, Kwatra said. India’s financial year runs from April to March.

He said India was trying to correct the trade imbalance with Russia by increasing its exports. India's top exports to Russia include drugs and pharmaceutical products, telecom instruments, iron and steel, marine products and machinery.

Its top imports from Russia include crude oil and petroleum products, coal and coke, pearls, precious and semi-precious stones, fertilizer, vegetable oil, gold and silver.