Putin to visit India for Brics Summit on Sept 12-13

Russian leader Vladimir Putin will visit India to attend the Brics summit on September 12–13, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov has told the state-run Tass news agency.

Putin is expected to hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the summit.

It will be Putin’s second visit to India within a year. He last visited India on December 4-5 on a state visit.

Since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, India is among the handful of countries that Putin has visited as the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a warrant for his arrest. India is not a member of the ICC.

In recent years, India and Russia have sought to expand their relationship beyond the defence and energy sectors where trade is almost entirely one-sided, with India buying Russian weapons, military equipment, and crude oil.

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As Firstpost’s Madhur Sharma previously reported, India and Russia have adopted a co-production model to create a more mutually beneficial arrangement.

Under this model, the two countries have envisaged the joint manufacturing of export-oriented goods, bringing fresh investment into India, enabling technology transfer, conducting joint research and development, and generating revenue streams for both sides. This is intended to address the lopsided nature of India-Russia trade — India’s imports account for around $60-63 billion out of total trade of about $68 billion, with crude oil accounting for roughly 90 per cent of imports.

Last year, India and Russia laid the groundwork for such a model through an agreement between Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) for the production of SJ-100 civilian passenger aircraft in India. UAC is the same company that manufactures Sukhoi fighter aircraft.

India and Russia have also been developing plans to collaborate in Russia’s mineral-rich Far East region. The two countries have pursued projects in the Far East as a win-win arrangement, with India gaining access to minerals and Russia securing workers and investment.