RUSSIAN President Vladmir Putin on Thursday proposed a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan next month when NSA Ajit Doval called on him in St Petersburg. The Putin-Doval meeting came nearly three weeks after Modi travelled to Ukranian capital Kyiv and held talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Doval is in St Petersburg to attend a conclave of national security advisors of the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-IndiaChina-South Africa) nations. The summit of the grouping will be held in the Russian city of Kazan from October 22-24. Modi is set to attend the summit.

 

“Vladimir Putin noted thesuccessful development of the Special and PrivilegedStrategic Partnershipbetween India and Russia andstressed the importance of security issues in bilateral relations, thanking the Indianside for maintaining dialoguein this area,” a Russian readout said. It said the RussianPresident proposed to hold abilateral meeting with Modi on October 22 on the sidelines of the BRICS summit to“summarise the outcomes of joint work” on the implementation of the agreementsreached during the Indianleader’s visit to Moscow andto outline prospects for thenear future. Modi visited Russia in July. “We are waiting for our good friend Modi and best regards to him,” the Russian media quoted Putin as saying in the meeting with Doval. On Wednesday, the NSA held wide-ranging talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigufocusingonimportantissuesof“mutual interests”.

 

“Both sides reviewed progress in bilateral cooperation and discussed important issues of mutual interest,” the Indian embassy in Russia said on the talks between Doval and Shoigu. It is understood that Modi’s talks with Zelenskyy in Kyiv on August 23 figured in the talks between the two NSAs. In his talks with Zelenskyy, Modi said both Ukraine and Russia should sit together without wasting time to end the ongoing war and that India was ready to play an “active role” to restore peace in the region. The Prime Minister said India was on the side of peace since the beginning of the conflictandhewouldevenliketocontributepersonally for a peacefulresolution of the crisis. Modi’s nearly nine-hour visit to Ukraine, the first by an Indian Prime Minister since its independence in 1991, came six weeks after he held summit talks with Putin in Moscow. In the last few days, there have been calls forIndia’spotentialroleinpushingpeacetalks between Russia and Ukraine as New Delhi has good relations with both the nations.