4 min readNew DelhiDec 3, 2024 02:30 AM IST
First published on: Dec 2, 2024 at 01:10 PM IST
IN LESS than a month, Russia has conveyed twice that President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit India in the coming months. Saying that Putin had received Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to visit India, the Kremlin said that the dates would be decided early next year. This will be Putin’s first visit to India since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022.
“Our leaders have an agreement to hold meetings once a year. This time, it’s our turn… We received PM Modi’s invitation and we will certainly consider it positively… We will figure out the tentative dates early next year,” Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said at a briefing, according to the Russian Embassy.
However, there has been no word of confirmation from New Delhi, and the Indian government is reading this public articulation as interest in Moscow to signal to the world that India is an important partner and Russia is far from isolated in the international community.
Sources said the Indian government announces visits closer to the date, and would not like to speculate on the time-frame. But they pointed to the schedule for reciprocal annual visits, according to which it is the Russian President’s turn to come to India next year.
This comes at a time when US President-elect Donald Trump is set to assume office in January next year. In the past, Trump has said that the Russia-Ukraine war would not have happened if he were the US President, and that he could “negotiate an end…in 24 hours”. He has also touted his relationship with Putin.
In this context, a visit by Putin to India can be significant. In fact, Trump is also expected to visit India for the Quad leaders’ summit next year.
In Kazan last month, Modi had told Putin that India was ready to help bring about a peaceful resolution to the ongoing conflict. He had also travelled to Kyiv in August and met Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, asking him to sit with Putin to “find a way out of the crisis”.
The Russian Embassy said that Putin and Modi have maintained regular contact, holding telephone conversations once every couple of months. Before travelling to Kazan for the BRICS Summit in October, Modi also made a two-day visit to Moscow to take part in the 22nd Russia-India Summit in July.
This is not the first time that Moscow has announced Putin’s intent to visit India. Two weeks ago, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov had announced his upcoming visit. “We welcomed Prime Minister Modi twice this year and we hope that soon we will figure out the dates of the visit of President Putin to India,” Peskov had said during his video address at an event in New Delhi organised by state-owned Sputnik news agency.
Putin last visited India in December 2021 — months before the war started in Ukraine. His planned visit is part of a protocol between India and Russia for reciprocal annual visits by their leaders. However, after the war began in Ukraine, there were no visits by either side, and it was only resumed when Modi went to Moscow in July this year.
While thanking Putin for the “gracious hospitality” extended to him and his delegation in Moscow in July, Modi had invited him to visit India in 2025 for the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit, the Ministry of External Affairs had said then.
Last month, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister, Denis Manturov, also visited India for key discussions on bilateral and global issues. Manturov participated in the plenary session of the Russia-India Business Forum in Mumbai, which focussed on expanding economic and business cooperation.
During his two-day visit, Manturov also held a bilateral meeting in New Delhi, and participated in the 25th Session of the Intergovernmental Russian-Indian Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical, and Cultural Cooperation.
In July this year, PM Modi invited Putin to visit India in 2025 for the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit, as per a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs earlier. (File photo) 
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