Several India-Russia meetings scheduled; Putin likely to visit in Oct: MEA

A number of high-level exchanges between India and Russia is set to take place, including the annual bilateral summit in October when President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that in the recent exchanges between the two sides, regional and international issues have also been discussed.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Putin had spoken on July 2 when the PM had congratulated him on the successful national vote on constitutional amendments in Russia.

"Then in the last week of June, Raksha Mantri (Rajnath Singh) had visited Moscow. The Indian military contingent had participated in the 75the anniversary of the victory in the 2nd world war.

"Yesterday when foreign secretary (Harsh Vardhan Shringla) and the (Russian) deputy foreign minister spoke, they took stock of all these recent exchanges and the idea is to keep the momentum of these regular exchanges going on because due to the Covid situation, we have not been able to have visits," he said.

"But there is a full calendar of forthcoming high-level exchanges between the two sides. The SCO and BRICS foreign ministers meetings, the NSAs' meeting, the Defence ministers' meeting are scheduled. Of course, we have the annual bilateral summit coming up in October when President Putin is expected to visit India," he said.

Asked about the SCO and BRICS meetings which were to take place in Russia, he said they were scheduled in July, but were postponed due to the Covid situation.

"The new dates will be decided depending on the Covid situation in the participating countries," Srivastava said.

To a question on the Kerala gold smuggling case, he said the NIA investigation is underway and he would not be able to comment on the specifics. He, however, said the MEA is extending all necessary facilitation for investigations in the case.