Modi and Putin aim for ‘stronger ties’ during talks in Moscow

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has met Vladimir Putin in Moscow, deepening ties between the two nations as Western leaders gathered at a Nato summit in Washington and Russia stepped up attacks in Ukraine with deadly missile strikes.

While leaders — including President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer — prepared to mark 75 years of the world’s biggest security organisation, and reassure Ukraine of Nato’s support, Mr Putin and Mr Modi were pictured viewing an exhibition of nuclear technology in space.

Mr Modi earlier laid a wreath at a war memorial near the Kremlin during his first visit to Russia since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

He also met Mr Putin on Monday at the start of his two-day trip, shortly after Russian missiles landed across Ukraine, severely damaging the largest children’s hospital in Kyiv and killing at least 42 people across the country.

While Mr Modi’s trip received wall-to-wall coverage in Russia, coverage of Russia’s deadly attack on Ukraine has been muted.

Mr Modi posted photos of his arrival in Moscow on the social media platform X, in both Russian and English, saying he was “looking forward to further deepening the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between our nations”.

“Stronger ties between our nations will greatly benefit our people,” he wrote, also sharing a picture of himself and Mr Putin hugging.

Russian state media reported that the leaders would discuss energy ties, including Russia helping India to build more nuclear power plants.

Russia has had strong ties with India since the Cold War, and New Delhi’s importance as a key trading partner has grown since the war in Ukraine.

China and India have become key buyers of Russian oil following sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies that shut most Western markets off to Russian exports. India now gets more than 40% of its oil imports from Russia, according to analysts.

Mr Modi last traveled to Russia in 2019, when he attended a forum in the far eastern port of Vladivostok and met Mr Putin. The leaders also saw each other in September 2022 in Uzbekistan, at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation bloc.

Under Mr Modi’s leadership, India has avoided condemning Russia’s military action in Ukraine while emphasising the need for a peaceful settlement.

The partnership between Moscow and New Delhi has become fraught, however, as Russia has moved closer to China.

Mr Modi notably stayed away from last week’s summit in Kazakhstan of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a security grouping founded by Moscow and Beijing.

A confrontation in June 2020 along the disputed China-India border dramatically altered their already touchy relationship as rival troops fought with rocks, clubs and fists.

At least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers were killed. Tensions have persisted despite talks — and have seeped into how New Delhi looks at Moscow.

But Mr Modi is expected to seek to continue close relations with Russia, which is also a major defence supplier for India.

With Moscow’s arms industries mostly serving the Russian military in Ukraine, India has been diversifying its defence procurements, buying more from the US, Israel, France and Italy.

Trade development also will figure strongly in the talks, particularly intentions to develop a maritime corridor between India’s major port of Chennai and Vladivostok, the gateway to Russia’s Far East.

India-Russia trade has seen a sharp increase, touching close to 65 billion dollars in the 2023-24 financial year due to strong energy cooperation, Indian foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra told reporters on Friday.