PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi is set to visit Russia on July 8-9, followed by Austria on July 9-10, The Indian Express has learnt. An official announcement is expected to be made this week. Modi’s visits to Moscow and Vienna will be the first set of bilateral visits in the third term of his government. Usually, the first foreign visit by the Indian PM is to the neighbouring countries. While this will be Modi’s first visit to Russia since the war started in February 2022, it will be the first visit by an Indian PM to Austria in 41 years, after Indira Gandhi in 1983. Though diplomatic relations between India and Austria were established on November 10, 1949, Indira visited Austria in 1983, and the then Austrian Chancellor, Fred Sinowatz, reciprocated with a visit to India in 1984. In November 1999, then President KR Narayanan made India’s first state visit to Austria. The then Austrian President, Heinz Fischer, reciprocated with a state visit in February 2005. Then President Pratibha Patil also made a state visit to Austria in October 4-7, 2011. In his first term, Modi held a bilateral meeting with then Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern in St Petersburg on June 2, 2017, on the sidelines of St Petersburg International Economic Forum. In his second term, Modi met then Austrian Chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg, on October 30, 2021, on sidelines of COP-26 in Glasgow. He also had a telephone conversation with President Alexander Van der Bellen on May 26, 2020. To foster innovation and entrepreneurship between the countries, the ‘India-Austria Startup Bridge’ was launched in February this year. Officials said ties between the two countries are expected to get a boost with the bilateral visit. Meanwhile, this will be Modi's first visit to Moscow since the Russia-Ukraine war started in February 2022. He last visited Russia in 2019, when he had gone to Vladivostok. This will be a standalone visit, on the lines of the annual bilateral summit between Indian and Russian leaders that have been going on since 2000. The last in-person bilateral meeting between Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin took place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in September 2022. That was when Modi told Putin that “this is not the era of war” — a line used in the formulation at the G20 summit in Bali in November 2022 later, and by other western leaders and interlocutors to press on Russia to end the war. In the two-and-a-half years since their last annual summit in December 2021, Modi and Putin have maintained regular contact through at least 10 telephone conversations. Modi’s visit to Russia comes just after his visit to Italy for the outreach session at the G7 leaders’ summit on June 13-14. However, he did not go for the peace summit on Ukraine which was held in Switzerland. India was represented by Secretary (West) in MEA, Pavan Kapoor. Russia did not attend the Swiss summit, calling it “waste of time”.
