Moscow, Russia

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Wednesday (Dec 27) in Moscow met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Russia. 

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As quoted by state media, Putin said, "We will be glad to see our friend, Mr Prime Minister Modi in Russia." 

Putin told Jaishankar that Russia and India's trade turnover is increasing, driven by sectors such as oil and high technology, as reported by TASS. 

"Our trade turnover is growing, for the second year in a row at the same time and at a steady pace. The growth rate this year is even higher than in the last year," Russia's head of state said. 

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Putin also said that he would discuss the conflict in Ukraine with the Indian foreign minister. The Russian president said, "We know Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi's position and we have repeatedly spoken about this — the position concerning his attitude to complex processes, including hotspots, to the situation in Ukraine." 

"I have repeatedly informed him about the situation around this conflict. I know about his desire to do everything to resolve this problem peacefully, but we will now talk more about it. We will provide you with additional information about this situation," Putin added. 

Also read: Indian Army will wipe out terrorism from Jammu and Kashmir, says Rajnath Singh 

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Earlier in the day, Jaishankar met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and held a wide-ranging and useful meeting to discuss the international situation and contemporary issues. 

In a post on X, Jaishankar said, "Exchanged views on Indo-Pacific, the Ukraine conflict, the Gaza situation, Afghanistan and Central Asia, BRICS, SCO, G20 and the UN." 

He also said that both of them noted the progress in our economic cooperation, energy trade, connectivity efforts, military-technical cooperation and people-to-people exchanges. 

He said that India and Russia also signed a Protocol on Consultations for the period 2024-28. 

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On Tuesday, Jaishankar held a "comprehensive and productive" meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Manturov on the bilateral economic cooperation during which they witnessed the signing of some "very important" agreements related to the construction of the future power-generating units of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu. 

The ties between India and Russia remained strong notwithstanding Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. India has not yet condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it has been maintaining that the crisis must be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue. 

(With inputs from agencies)