Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived at Delhi’s Palam Airport on Thursday evening where he was received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Putin is on a two-day visit to India, his first official visit to the country since the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.
Putin is in India for the 23rd annual India-Russia Summit. Prime Minister Modi has a meeting with Putin in Hyderabad on Friday, December 5.
Itinerary of Vladimir Putin’s visit to India
Here’s a glimpse of the Russian president’s itinerary tomorrow:
Vladimir Putin’s visit to the country comes at a time when India is under constant pressure from the US to curb purchases of Russian oil.
Energy relations of India and Russia
Trump also recently claimed that India had cut back on oil purchases from Russia following the imposition of tariffs by the US. Washington imposed a 50% tariff on all Indian goods, including a 25% levy on New Delhi’s purchase of Russian oil.
On Thursday, referring to Western sanctions against Moscow, Putin said – in an interview with India Today – that his country’s energy cooperation with Delhi largely “remains intact”.
“Regarding the purchase of India’s energy resources from Russia, I would like to note, and I have already mentioned this publicly once, that the United States itself is still buying nuclear fuel from us for its own nuclear power plants,” Putin said in an interview.
He further praised Modi and stated that “Prime Minister Modi is not someone who easily succumbs to pressure.”
India’s purchases of Russian oil have been in the spotlight since the US in October imposed sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil, two of Russia’s biggest oil producers, to cut the Kremlin’s sources of funding for its war in Ukraine. Even in October, India was the second largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels after China – according to a report by a European think tank – which cited the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research (CREA).
The last time Putin visited India was on December 6, 2021. He visited New Delhi to attend the 21st annual India-Russia Summit.
