Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit India on Dec 4-5

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit India on December 4-5 at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, confirmed the Ministry of External Affairs. The two leaders will discuss strategic partnership between the nations.

President Droupadi Murmu will also host a banquet in the honour of President Putin.

In the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit, the two sides will review the 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.

This meeting would be closely watched by Washington who has asked India to reduce its Russian oil imports. Trump, who imposed a 50 per cent tariff on India, has blamed the country for profiteering off the Ukraine war, as well as supporting Moscow.

Earlier this month, Trump stated that Indian officials assured him Russian oil purchases would decrease, although India’s Ministry of External Affairs had not confirmed any such assurances. Trump labelled the US-India relationship as one of US’ “most important international relationships”.

Discussing potential changes to the trade penalties, Trump acknowledged, “Right now, the tariffs are very high on India because of the Russian oil,” and indicated a possible easing: “They’ve stopped doing the Russian oil. It’s been reduced very substantially. Yeah, we’re going to be bringing the tariffs down…At some point, we’re going to be bringing them down.”

Meanwhile, Putin said Washington was trying to humiliate India by pressuring it to cut energy ties with Russia. He warned that such tactics would hurt the American economy more than Russia’s.

Addressing the Valdai Discussion Forum in Sochi, Putin said, “The people of a country like India will closely monitor decisions made by the political leadership and will never allow any humiliation of anyone…I know PM Modi, he himself would never take any steps of this kind.”