Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit India on December 4-5 for the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit. President Droupadi Mumru will host a banquet in his honour. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that Putin will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Dec 4.
“The forthcoming State Visit will provide an opportunity for the leadership of India and Russia to review progress in bilateral relations, set the vision for strengthening the ‘Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership’ and exchange views on regional and global issues of mutual interest,” the MEA said in an official statement.
S-400 delivery delay to be discussed
The two leaders will hold discussions on multiple matters of mutual cooperation and key global issues. The announcement comes hours after Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said that India will be talking about broader defence cooperation and seek clear answers from Russia on delivery delays of the S-400 air defence systems during Putin’s visit.
Addressing ANI’s National Security Summit in New Delhi, the Defence Secretary said, “Potentially S-400 not ruled but don’t expect any announcements during this. This meeting will focus on the broader elements of Cooperation on defence between the 2 sides. We’ll try to ensure that some of these delivery delays are ended and we start getting clearer answers in terms of when some of these Delayed deliveries take place.”
India-Russia defence program
The Defence Secretary also said that India and Russia have a large defence program, and the country has promised to deliver the rest of the equipment in Financial Year 2026-27.
“I don’t want to talk about specific, procurement decisions. That is essentially in a sense, giving advanced warning of what have to be cabinet decisions. So I’m not going to talk about specific platforms but we have a very large defence program with them. Including the existing S-400 contracts which are delayed. But they’ve now promised to deliver the balance to batteries in the coming Financial year,” he said, quoted ANI.
PM Modi had last met Putin in September on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Oragnisation (SCO) Summit in China, along with Chinese President Xi Jinping.