Russian President Vladimir Putin is likely to attend the G20 summit to be held here under India’s presidency in September.
“There is a strong possibility of Putin’s visit to India in September for participation in the G20 leaders’ summit in the national capital. The Russian and Indian diplomats are working closely to make the visit of Putin to New Delhi possible,” diplomatic sources told The Daily Guardian. “If Putin visits New Delhi, he will also hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The diplomats on both sides are working on that as well,” sources added. The issues of discussion are being finalised.
According to sources, Moscow will soon officially confirm Putin’s visit schedule. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov recently hinted at the same, saying “It cannot be ruled out.” He was asked whether Putin will participate in the summit in India in September. The Indian officials working with the Russian counterparts in this regard told TDG that Moscow has unofficially confirmed it, asking the diplomatic teams to start preparation for a bilateral meeting between President Putin and PM Modi.
Sources said that the presidential office has postponed Putin’s presence at Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok, also in September, to enable his presence in Delhi for the G-20 summit. Putin had skipped both 2021 (Italy) and 2022 (Indonesia) G20 summits due to Covid-19 and the Ukraine conflict, respectively.
India had earlier extended an invitation to President Putin for the summit. Russia had accepted the invitation as well. In fact, India wants President Putin and the western leaders to come face to face so that some issues related to the Ukraine conflict could be addressed in such a meeting. India will be exercising its diplomatic skills to mediate between the Russian leader and Western bloc in order to ensure that the acrimony between the two sides does not derail the summit discussions, sources said. Sources said that the officials and diplomats at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) have already started finalising the issues and agenda to be taken up for discussion during a possible bilateral meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September. Russia has always appreciated the steadiness shown by India in dealing with the Ukraine war. India did not condemn Russia for the military operation in Ukraine despite massive western pressure to do so. New Delhi always continued to stick to the stand of favouring dialogue to resolve the problems between Russia and Ukraine. India maintained that it is on the side of peace and diplomacy. On every platform where he spoke, PM Modi pitched for immediate cessation of violence in Ukraine. That Russia remained satisfied with India’s stand vis-à-vis the Ukraine conflict was evident also from Putin’s gesture of meeting with NSA Ajit Doval in Moscow. Breaking the established protocol, this meeting was quite significant in messaging, diplomats said.