On Thursday, the First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Denis Manturov had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar to discuss the bilateral cooperation in main areas, such as energy, fertilisers, trade, and connectivity. People to people relationships and application of the decisions made in the India-Russia Summit when President Vladimir Putin had visited New Delhi last December were also discussed.
On the social media, PM Modi emphasised that the discussions were geared towards mutually advantageous collaboration in trade, fertilisers, connectivity, and people-to-people relations, as the two countries continued to work on strategic partnerships. Jaishankar, in his turn, observed that the areas of cooperation covered included trade, industry, energy, fertilisers, connectivity, and mobility, and noted the potential opportunities within the sphere of technology, innovation, and critical minerals. There were also discussions between the officials about regional and other developments around the world and the current conflict in West Asia with the focus on the common interest in the energy and fertiliser security in the world disruptions.
Recently, Russia has re-appeared as a major energy provider to India after the US waivered on sanctions, and Indian imports continued despite the tension in West Asia. India is also interested in getting more supplies of Russian fertiliser to compensate on the short supplies of the same due to the regional conflicts. Deputy PM Manturov visit came after diplomatic discussions between Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko, which had discussed the general situation in bilateral relations. Also, the visit comes after India had decided to purchase five more S-400 air defence systems with Russia, after the success of the system in operation during the Sindoor, the four days military exercise that India had with Pakistan last year.
Such an involvement highlights the fact that India and Russia are willing to further advance strategic and economic partnership and overcome urgent energy, fertiliser, and defence demands.