RUSSIAN president Vladimir Putin will make a state visit to India on December 4 and 5 at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Kremlin said on Friday.
The Kremlin said the two leaders will sign trade deals, "discuss all aspects" of Russian-Indian ties and also take up regional and international issues.
The Kremlin said Putin and Modi will discuss all aspects of their countries' "privileged strategic partnership" during the visit. Putin will also have a separate meeting with President Droupadi Murmu. It said a number of intergovernmental and commercial documents would be signed.
India’s ties with the West have been under strain over its purchases of Russian oil at discounted prices since Moscow began its offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.
US President Donald Trump slapped 50 per cent tariffs on most Indian imports in August, accusing the country of funding Russia's war effort.
Trump has repeatedly urged Modi to stop India’s buying of oil from Russia. In August, he imposed an additional tariff of 25 per cent on Indian goods in what Moscow said was illegal trade pressure on New Delhi.
India, a major buyer of Russian oil, has sourced weapons from Russia for decades. A top defence official said on Friday that India had bought U.S. arms worth nearly 30 billion dollars in the past decade and aims to produce more of its own equipment.
"They (the Russians) have been our friends through both fair and foul weather, and we are not going to sort of stop our defence cooperation with them anytime soon, but I do want to stress that India follows a policy of strategic autonomy," Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said in New Delhi. He said India was diversifying its suppliers and added: "But more than anything else we are trying to ensure that we increasingly do spend the bulk of our money within the country."
Trade and refining sources said this week that India’s December oil imports from Russia were set to fall to their lowest in at least three years, after November’s multi-month highs, as refiners looked for options to avoid breaching Western sanctions.
Putin last visited India in December 2021, a few months before Russia went to war in Ukraine the following February. The Kremlin said, "This visit is of great importance, providing an opportunity to comprehensively discuss the extensive agenda of Russian-Indian relations as a particularly privileged strategic partnership."
