Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday for the first time since the US penalised India for buying Russian oil.
Putin met US President Donald Trump in Alaska earlier this month. He has spoken to Modi twice in August — once before and again after meeting the US President. In the meantime, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also spoke to Modi.
The meeting between Modi and Putin is significant since Trump has taken exception to India’s purchase of Russian oil and levied an extra 25 per cent tariff on top of the reciprocal tariff of 25 per cent imposed on India.
India has said that China and Europe too have been buying cheap Russian oil, but that New Delhi has been singled out by Washington.
Asked about the Putin meeting, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said: “I would, at this stage, not preempt the conversation that is going to take place tomorrow afternoon.”
Around 45 minutes have been kept aside for the noon meeting.
As Prime Minister Modi reached Tianjin for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, Ukraine’s Zelenskyy spoke to him and said “the end of this (Ukraine) war must begin with an immediate ceasefire”.
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Zelenskyy also said that “India is ready to make the necessary efforts and to deliver the appropriate signal to Russia and other leaders” at the summit.
Zelenskyy shared his perspective on the recent developments related to Ukraine, said the statement, in the wake of Putin and Trump’s August 15 meeting in Alaska, and Trump’s subsequent meeting with Zelenskyy and other European leaders in Washington.
On August 18, three days after he met Trump in Alaska, Putin had also called up Modi and “shared his insights” on the meeting. This came hours before Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy and European leaders. The PMO said Putin shared with Modi his assessment of his meeting with Trump.
On August 9, in the run-up to the Alaska talks amid the strain in Delhi’s ties with Washington after Trump doubled the tariff on India over its purchase of Russian oil, Modi and Putin had a phone conversation during which they discussed “the latest developments on Ukraine” and reaffirmed their “commitment to further deepen the India-Russia Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership”.
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Russia had criticised Trump’s tariff action and backed India’s right to choose its trading partners.
Earlier this week, Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade advisor, described the Russia-Ukraine war as “Modi’s war”, and said “the road to peace runs, at least partly, right through New Delhi”, adding, “everybody in America loses because of what India is doing”.
India has maintained a firm stand on its strategic autonomy. Vinay Kumar, Indian ambassador to Russia, told Russia’s TASS news agency: “Indian companies will continue buying (oil) from wherever they get the best deal”.
Putin is slated to visit India in December this year, according to a statement by the Kremlin Friday.
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Last year, Modi had travelled to Moscow and Kyiv and announced that “solutions can’t be found on the battlefield”, and that India was ready to support peace efforts.
Meet comes amid US pressure
Modi and Putin have been in touch with each other since the war in Ukraine started. But the situation has reached a critical juncture where India is being penalised by the US for buying oil from Russia. The Modi-Putin meeting will look at how to negotiate the issue at a time when US President Trump has taken a hard line against India. This will be Modi’s third conversation in a month with Putin.
