Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to meet with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow early next month, Indian and Russian media reported Monday.
The Indian English-language newspaper The Tribune, without citing sources, reported that Modi was expected to visit Moscow on July 8 to “underline the engagement” between the two countries.
Likewise, Russian officials quoted by state media said they were “actively preparing” for the meeting.
“I can confirm that we’re preparing a visit by the prime minister of India,” Putin’s aide Yury Ushakov told the state-run TASS news agency without disclosing the specific dates of the trip.
Russian and Indian leaders have held bilateral meetings every year since 2000, except for during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Modi scrapped the annual Russia-India summit in December 2022 amid reports that he was seeking to distance himself from Putin’s nuclear threats against Ukraine.
India has not condemned Moscow or imposed sanctions for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, though Modi publicly criticized Putin in September 2022.
Russia has redirected its oil exports from Europe to India and China after Western countries hit Moscow with sanctions.
