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External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday met Russian President Vladimir Putin, where the two leaders discussed ways to further strengthen India-Russia ties, reported PTI.
The meeting came just hours after Jaishankar held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, which focused on expanding trade relations between the two nations.
Steady ties over decades
Speaking at a joint media briefing with Lavrov, Jaishankar said: “We believe that relations between India and Russia have been among the steadiest of the major relationships in the world after the Second World War.”
"We reaffirmed our shared ambition to expand bilateral trade in a balanced and sustainable manner, including by increasing India’s exports to Russia," Jaishankar said, adding, "This requires swiftly addressing non-tariff barriers and regulatory impediments. Enhancing Indian exports to Russia in sectors like pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and textiles will certainly help to correct the current imbalance."
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On August 18, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also said he received a phone call from his “friend” Putin, who briefed him on his recent meeting with US President Donald Trump in Alaska. The two leaders are set to hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin, China, on 31 August and 1 September.
These phone calls come amid soaring tensions with the US, after President Donald Trump imposed 50 per cent tariffs on Indian imports, which include a 25 per cent penalty for importing Russian oil.
India, however, has termed this additional duty as "unjustified", “unreasonable” and “extremely unfortunate”, stating its energy imports from Russia are driven by national "necessity" and are far smaller in scale compared to trade between Russia and the West.
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