Putin calls Modi, thanks India for VictoryDay solidarity

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the World Diamond Conference with Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi on 11 December 2014 [PPIO]

Days after India appointed the first BRICS Bank president, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he discussed the “privileged strategic partnership between Russia and India” in a phone conversation on Wednesday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Russia-India ties are expected to receive a significant boost by twin visits by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Russia in July and November.

“Mr Putin and Mr Modi discussed steps to further develop the privileged strategic partnership between Russia and India, as well as several large joint trade and economic projects,” said a Kremlin statement.

Putin pointedly thanked the Indian administration for the high-level delegation that participated in Russia’s Victory Day celebrations last weekend.

“Mr Putin expressed his thanks for India’s high level of representation at the events in Moscow celebrating the 70^th anniversary of Victory in the 1941–1945 Great Patriotic War,” said the Kremlin statement.

Indian and Chinese Presidents Pranab Mukherjee and Xi Jinping were right beside Russian President Vladimir Putin although notably absentees included the leaders of Britain, France and the US.

On 9^th May Russia showed off its military muscle in one of its biggest parades, with hundreds of warplanes in a fly-over and thousands of troops marching in Red Square.

During Wednesday’s phone conversation with Putin, Modi also confirmed that he would attend the upcoming BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summits in the Russian city of Ufa in July.

India and Russia in December last year agreed to jointly explore for oil and gas, build petrochemical plants, lay pipelines and cooperate in infrastructure development and smart cities to treble bilateral trade to $30 billion by 2025.

 

TBP