Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in India on Thursday for a two-day visit aimed at deepening defence ties, as New Delhi faces heavy US pressure to stop buying oil from Moscow.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at the airport to welcome the Russian leader in person, greeting him on the red carpet with a hug, before riding together in the same car.<\/p>\n
India\u2019s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) and Russia\u2019s President Vladimir Putin sit in a car as they depart Palam Air Force Base after the latter\u2019s arrival in New Delhi. \u2014AFP
\nPutin, on his first visit to India since the Ukraine war, is accompanied by his Defence Minister Andrei Belousov, with possible deals on fighter jets and air defence systems expected to be discussed.<\/p>\n
In an interview with India Today, Putin said he was \u201cvery happy\u201d to be meeting \u201cmy friend\u201d Modi.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe range of our cooperation with India is huge,\u201d he said in remarks translated by the broadcaster, citing ship and aircraft manufacturing, nuclear energy and space exploration.<\/p>\n
The Indian premier said he was \u201cdelighted to welcome my friend, President Putin to India\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking forward to our interactions later this evening and tomorrow,\u201d Modi said in a post on X.<\/p>\n
He will host Putin for a private dinner on Thursday evening, followed by a summit meeting on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndia-Russia friendship is a time tested one that has greatly benefitted our people,\u201d Modi added, posting a picture of them from inside the car.<\/p>\n
Trade relations are expected to feature prominently as India walks a diplomatic tightrope \u2013 relying on strategic Russian oil imports while trying not to provoke US President Donald Trump during ongoing tariff negotiations.<\/p>\n
Energy imports
\nKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said talks to expand the supply of Russia\u2019s advanced S-400 air defence systems had an \u201cimportant place on the agenda\u201d.<\/p>\n
Indian media reports suggested Moscow may also offer co-production of Russia\u2019s Su-57 fighter jets.<\/p>\n
India is one of the world\u2019s top arms importers, and Russia has long been a principal supplier.<\/p>\n
But New Delhi has also sought alternative suppliers, as well as boosting domestic production \u2013 with the Russian share of India\u2019s arms imports falling from 76 percent in 2009-13 to 36 percent in 2019-23, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in India on Thursday for a two-day visit aimed at deepening defence ties, as New Delhi faces heavy US pressure to stop buying oil from Moscow. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was at the airport to welcome the Russian leader in person, greeting him on the red carpet with a hug, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13883"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13885,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13883\/revisions\/13885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}