PM Modi will host President Putin for a private dinner tonight.
Russian President Vladimir Putin landed in New Delhi on Thursday evening for a 27-hour visit that India views as a reaffirmation of one of its oldest and most resilient strategic partnerships in the world.
Here are 10 points on this big story:
- President Putin arrived in Delhi around 6:35 pm on Thursday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi received him at Palam airport with a hug before both of them left the airport in the Prime Minister's car. The PM will host him for a private dinner, a reciprocal gesture to the hospitality extended by the Russian leader during PM Modi's visit to Moscow in July last year.
- The summit itself will take place on Friday, preceded by a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan, and followed by a working lunch at Hyderabad House, the traditional venue for India's highest-level bilateral engagements. President Putin is also scheduled to visit Rajghat in the morning to pay respects to Mahatma Gandhi.
- The Russian President will later inaugurate a new India-based channel of the Russian state broadcaster, before attending a state banquet hosted in his honour by President Droupadi Murmu. He is expected to depart India around 9 pm on Friday.
- According to government sources, President Putin is travelling with a large group of businesspeople, with India expecting to improve the trade deficit with one of its oldest strategic partners.
- Officials from both sides have said the summit will focus on three critical themes -- defence, energy and trade. Government sources have said that multiple agreements and MoUs are expected in the fields of shipping, healthcare, fertilisers, and connectivity.
- On Thursday, ahead of the summit, the defence ministers of the two countries held wide-ranging talks that included India's plan to procure additional batches of S-400 air defence systems and pending deliveries of military hardware delayed by the Ukraine war. The S-400 system, which India began receiving under a USD 5 billion deal signed in 2018, played a big role during Operation Sindoor.
- Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said Russia may raise the possibility of supplying Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jets, an offer that would place Moscow directly in competition with Western contenders, including the Rafale, F-21, F/A-18 and Eurofighter Typhoon.
- India remains one of the largest buyers of discounted Russian crude. But recent US sanctions on two major Russian oil producers have caused a noticeable dip in India's purchases.
- President Putin's trip comes at a moment when India-US ties have entered what several Indian officials privately describe as "the most strained period in two decades". Washington recently imposed a 50 per cent tariff on a range of Indian goods and a 25 per cent additional levy directly linked to India's procurement of Russian oil
- Delhi Police have deployed over 5,000 personnel across central and New Delhi districts, with layered security involving SWAT teams, anti-terror squads, snipers at elevated locations, quick-reaction teams, anti-drone mechanisms, high-definition CCTV grids and technical surveillance systems ahead of the Russian President's visit.
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