The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin will arrive in India today for the 21st annual India – Russia summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The two had last met personally during the BRICS summit in Brasilia in November 2019, and this will be their first in-person meet since then.
Despite the emergence of the new Covid-19 strain Omicron affecting the schedule of several bilateral and international summits, President Putin decided to come to India for the meet.
A review of the prospects of bilateral relations and measures to strengthen the strategic partnership between the two nations will be on the agenda for the summit.
Before the annual summit, India and Russia will also hold the first 2+2 dialogue on "political and defence issues of mutual interest", to be held at the level of the foreign and defence ministers.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will hold the discussions with their Russian counterparts Sergey Lavrov and Sergey Shoigu.
Arindam Bagchi, the External Affairs spokesperson had earlier said, "The agenda for the dialogue will cover political and defence issues of mutual interest. The establishment of this new mechanism of two plus two dialogue is expected to further strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries".
Following the talks between PM Modi and Mr. Putin, several bilateral agreements in various areas are expected to be signed between the two countries.