Modi-Putin meeting today; oil, arms likely to figure in talks

Amid the US tariffs on India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin are scheduled to hold a bilateral meeting on Monday. The meeting will be held on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Tianjin, China.

Earlier in the day, Putin arrived in Tianjin. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced at a press conference in Tianjin that a bilateral between Modi and Putin was scheduled for Monday. He refused to share details of the expected agenda. However, discussions could cover crude oil supplies and pending weapons deliveries.

Modi and Putin spoke over the phone on August 8 and again on August 18, that means they spoke before Putin met US President Donald Trump in Alaska on August 15 and after the Alaska Summit as well.

The two had re-affirmed a commitment to ‘deepen’ the strategic partnership between the two countries. PM Modi had then posted on social media platform X saying “We reviewed the progress in our bilateral agenda, and reaffirmed our commitment to further deepen the India-Russia special and privileged strategic partnership”.

India is looking forward to hosting Putin later this year for the annual bilateral summit.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had travelled to Moscow on separate occasions in the past few weeks. Both had called on Putin.

Despite the US having imposed punitive tariffs, India and Russia have, last month, discussed military-cooperation besides manufacturing of civilian aircraft and metallurgy — the science of merging different metals — needed to make guns, aircraft parts and engines.

This was part of the discussion Doval had had with Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov in August.

New Delhi’s war machine in majorly parented from Russia and this includes large fleets of fighter jets, tanks, rifles, helicopters, the S-400 air defence system, besides the partnership for the BrahMos missile, which proved its efficacy during Operation Sindoor.

India and Russia have a joint venture to produce the BrahMos in India; a majority of the Sukhoi-30 MKI jets were produced in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited; the T-90 tanks are produced at a factory near Chennai while the AK 203 rifle is made at a facility near Lucknow.

Sweden-based Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, in its annual report on March 10 this year, said for a five-year block (2020-2024), India was second-largest importer of weapons globally. Russia, supplied 36 per cent of these imports.