Russia’s Putin hosts Indian PM for talks

After alighting from the aircraft, Modi was welcomed with a ceremonial guard of honour at the airport.

Mr Modi arrived in Moscow on Wednesday but the visit officially kicks off after midday, including talks with Mr Putin, a meeting with business executives and a talk at a Moscow expo centre.

After the prime minister stepped onto the tarmac, a Russian official made a gesture with his hand which was reportedly misinterpreted by PM Modi as he started walking.

“This has created an ancient tradition of openness, respect for diversity of beliefs and cultures, and a timeless tradition of living in harmony with nature”, he added. Delhi and Moscow have been building on a counter-terror cooperation away from the public glare and the mechanism to boost intelligence sharing and training of personnel in counter-terrorism and enhancing capacity building to fight the growing menace will be on the agenda for the Prime Minister’s trip to Russian Federation for the annual summit this week, the Economic Times reported, according to unnamed official sources.

A raft of agreements spanning a broad spectrum of sectors are expected to be signed following the talks, with trade being a major focus area.

They could announce also the location of a new Russian nuclear plant in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, an extension of the Russian nuclear plant under construction in Kudankulam where one reactor is already in operation.

These talks have been held annually since 2000 and hosted alternately between Moscow and Delhi.

“Russia’s and India’s positions are close or coincide” on topical worldwide issues, the presidential press service said. We additionally need to improve cooperation in science and know-how, mining amongst different sectors. Although the US emerged as India’s biggest defense supplier last fiscal year, the Asian nation’s links with Russian Federation stretch back to their Soviet-era ties.

“The best thing is that he knows how to maintain relations”, Modi said of Putin in an interview with Russian state news agency TASS published on December 23.

“Russia and India have a very strong partnership that the USA can only aspire to”, said Grevatt. Russian Federation is one of the top oil producers globally and has huge reserves of natural gas.