Putin invites Modi to Russia, wishes PM 'success' in 2024 Lok Sabha elections

India’s import of Russian crude oil has gone up significantly despite increasing disquiet over it in many Western countries.

In a meeting with Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar at Kremlin , Russian President Vladimir Putin wished “dear friend” Prime Minister Narendra Modi “success” in the 2024 general elections.

Putin made the remarks while extending an invitation to PM Modi to visit Russia. “We will be very glad to see our dear friend his excellency Prime Minister Narendra Modi to paying a visit to Russia. So we will be able to discuss the current issues and talk on the prospects of Russian and Indian relations. we have a lot… an open field of work ahead of us,” Putin said.

The Russian President said, “Although, I know India next year will have a busy political schedule. The general elections for parliament are scheduled for next year and we wish our very dear friend every success.”

Jaishankar, who is here on a five-day official visit to Russia, earlier met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. During a joint media appearance along with Lavrov after their talks, Jaishankar said he was confident that PM Modi and President Putin will meet for an annual summit next year. In his opening remarks earlier, Jaishankar said that the two leaders have been in frequent contact.

The summit between the prime minister of India and the Russian president is the highest institutional dialogue mechanism in the strategic partnership between the two sides. So far, 21 annual summits have taken place alternatively in India and Russia. The last summit took place in New Delhi in December 2021. Putin also said that the trade turnover between Russia and India is growing, particularly on account of crude oil and high technology areas, Tass reported. "Our trade turnover is growing, for the second year in a row at the same time and at a steady pace. The growth rate this year is even higher than in the last year," he said.

As soon as the meeting started, the Russian president told Jaishankar that they will discuss the conflict in Ukraine. "We know Prime Minister Modi's position and we have repeatedly spoken about this position concerning his attitude to complex processes, including hotspots, to the situation in Ukraine," Putin said. "I have repeatedly informed him about the situation around this conflict. I know about his desire to do everything to resolve this problem peacefully, but we will now talk more about it. We will provide you with additional information about this situation."

The ties between India and Russia remained strong notwithstanding Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. India has not yet condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it has been maintaining that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue. India’s import of Russian crude oil has gone up significantly despite increasing disquiet over it in many Western countries.