Putin in India on 6 December

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit India on 6 December, the Kremlin said. It is Putin’s second trip abroad since the start of the pandemic, after the lightning mission to Geneva last June for the summit with US President Joe Biden. The visit takes place a few days before the ‘summit of democracies’ organized by the American President, to which India was invited and Russia was not. On the 6th Putin will meet the Indian Premier Narendra Modi with whom he will discuss the “future developments of the privileged strategic partnership between the two countries” and the most urgent global issues, including cooperation within the G20, the BRICS and the Organization for Cooperation of Shanghai. Numerous agreements will be signed at the summit, including in the defense sector, the Russian agency Tass anticipates. Among these, there is a document for military technical cooperation for the period 2021-2031. There will also be a meeting of the Foreign and Defense Ministers (the so-called 2 + 2 format) and the Joint Military Commission, the Indian media specify. In December, the first Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile batteries will be delivered to India. Last September, Biden welcomed Narendra Modi to the White House “to renew the close relationship between the two countries and plan a new path to advance the partnership between the two largest democracies in the world”, as the American Presidency had pointed out.