India-Russia summit to not happen this year due to 'scheduling issues'

In the backdrop of the Ukraine conflict and scheduling issues, the annual India-Russia summit will not take place this year. The summit alternates between the two countries, and this year, the Indian PM Narendra Modi was supposed to travel to Moscow for the summit.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict of course had its shadow even as New Delhi has been calling for dialogue and diplomacy to resolve the conflict that has increased global food, fuel and commodity prices.

Sources pointed out that plan to hold the annual summit could not materialise in November and December because of the elections in the states of Gujarat, and Himachal Pradesh and the start of the winter session of the Indian Parliament.

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India, Russia annual summit is the highest institutionalised dialogue mechanism between the two countries at the leaders' level. So far, 21 summits have taken place since the first summit that took place in since the first summit that places in November 2001 in Moscow. The last summit to take place was in Delhi on December 6, 2021 with Russian President Putin travelling to the Indian national capital.

Sources also deny western media reports that the Russian President's nuclear threat had any role to play in India-Russia Summit not happening given the call that the summit will not take place was taken much before that.

PM Modi and Russian President Putin had earlier this year held a bilateral in Samarkand on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation or SCO summit. During that meeting, PM emphasised that "this is not an era of war", a line since than has been repeated by a number of western leaders and was mentioned in the G20 Bali joint statement.

Since the conflict started inFebruary this year, threeIndian top ministers/officials have visited Russia—Heath Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, National security advisor Ajit Doval and External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar. India, meanwhile, continues to strongly defend its stance on importing Russian energy.

Jaishankar earlier this month said that"oil import in European Union is like six times what India's imported.." adding that"Europe will make the choices it will make that is Europe’s right. But for Europe to make choices, which prioritizes its energy needs, and then ask India to do something else".

In 2020 as well, the summit could not happen due to the covid pandemic. Before that in 2019, PM Modi travelled to Vladivostok. 2018 saw Russian President Putin travelling to Delhi for the summit which saw both sides signing the pact for S400.

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