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New Delhi is preparing for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India in the first week of December, and the dates under consideration are December 4 to 6, sources said. The Indian government is considering hosting Putin in a city outside of Delhi, and Jaipur, Agra and Goa are the possible options, they said.
Jaipur, Agra and Goa are the cities being explored to host the Russian President, they said.
Sources said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is likely to come to India in November to prepare the groundwork for the Russian President’s visit — his first since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Putin, who has visited India regularly since October 2000, had last visited New Delhi in 2021.
This is part of the annual bilateral summit since 2000, and there have been 22 annual summits which have taken place alternatively in India and Russia. The last summit was held on July 8-9, 2024, in Moscow when PM Narendra Modi travelled there.
Modi and Putin had met in Tianjin on September 1 on the sidelines of the SCO leaders’ summit on August 31-September 1, when Modi also confirmed that Putin would be travelling to India in December this year. “We’ve been in constant touch. There have also been many high-level meetings between the two sides regularly. 140 crore Indians are eagerly waiting to welcome you for our 23rd summit in December this year,” he had said.
On September 17, Modi spoke to Putin, after the Russian leader called him to wish on his 75th birthday. This was their third phone conversation since August. When Modi and Putin last met at the SCO summit in Tianjin on September 1 — their first meeting after the US imposed 25% additional tariffs on India for Russian oil purchase — they had underlined “bilateral cooperation, including in the economic, financial and energy sectors”.
PM Modi’s meeting with Putin in China had grabbed the attention of the international community, including partners like US and Europe. Delhi’s ties with Moscow go back to the Soviet era, especially in defence deals. Putin’s upcoming trip is part of the legacy relationship with Russia and part of the annual bilateral summits taken place in India and Russia since 2000.
The September 1 bilateral meeting came after a shared car ride as the two leaders left the SCO summit in Putin’s vehicle – Modi had posted a photograph of the car ride on X. Sources said Putin desired to travel with Modi to the hotel where the bilateral meeting was scheduled to be held, and waited for about 10 minutes for him. They spent another 45 minutes in the vehicle even after reaching the hotel.
This was followed by the bilateral meeting, attended by senior officials from both sides, which went on for over an hour. Welcoming the recent efforts to bring the Ukraine war to an end, Modi had told Putin that India hoped that all parties “shall proceed ahead constructively”, referring to the conversations between US President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Russian President.
Putin’s visit will be significant since Trump has taken exception to India’s purchase of Russian oil and levied an additional 25 per cent tariff. Russia criticised the tariff and backed India’s right to choose its trading partners. India said that China and Europe too have been buying cheap Russian oil, but that New Delhi has been singled out by Washington.
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