Jaishankar meets Putin, hands over PM’s personal note.
In Kremlin’s Senate Palace on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin shook hands with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and said he plans to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit to be held at Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
“At the beginning of our conversation, I would like to ask you to convey my very best wishes to Mr. Modi. We hope to see him soon, as we planned, as part of our work within the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation,” Putin said. “It looks like our schedules may also allow us to meet again this year.” It was a short line with big signaling.
Jaishankar, who called on Putin in the Kremlin, briefed the Russian President about his meetings in Moscow and handed over a personal message from Prime Minister Modi.
The visit is about more than optics. Jaishankar also co-chaired the 27th India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation with First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov.
“Our discussions focused on our wide-ranging cooperation in trade, investments, energy, fertilizers, nuclear, connectivity, technology, space and mobility domains,” Jaishankar said after the meeting.At the heart of the talks is a trade paradox. Bilateral India-Russia trade surged after 2022, driven by discounted Russian crude, but it is heavily imbalanced in Moscow’s favour. India’s exports have not kept pace with imports. Jaishankar acknowledged that. He said bilateral India-Russia trade should aim to touch $100 billion by 2030 but cautioned against growing imbalance.
“Progress on market access, removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers, strengthening payment mechanisms, and stronger business-to-business engagement will be critical for addressing this imbalance and achieving our shared objective of $100 billion in bilateral trade by 2030,” he said, calling for growing engagement between Indian and Russian businesses.He referred to the “complicated international scenario” as a window for new opportunities and “de-risking” — diplomatic shorthand for Western sanctions on Russia and pressure on India to diversify.
For Delhi, the messaging is delicate. It needs Russian defence spares, nuclear cooperation, and cheap oil, but also needs to protect its own exporters. For Moscow, isolated by the West, India is one of its few large-scale energy buyers and a partner that still engages at the highest level.
The personal message from Modi to Putin, the invite to India for the BRICS Summit and the annual bilateral summit, and the public reference to meeting again this year, all point to a relationship that both sides want to keep warm — even as global order turns cold.