Russia confirms: Putin will visit India in first trip since Ukraine war, preparations on

In a video address to a conference titled ‘Russia and India: Together Towards a New Bilateral Agenda’ in Moscow, Lavrov said, “It is symbolic that Prime Minister Modi made his first bilateral foreign visit after his re-election last year to Russia. Now it is our turn. Russian President Putin has accepted the invitation of the head of the Indian government. The visit of the head of the Russian state to the Republic of India is being prepared.”

The visit is part of a protocol between India and Russia for reciprocal annual visits by their leaders. However, once the Ukraine war began, the visits stopped, and resumed only in July last year when Modi travelled to Moscow with the message that “a solution cannot be found on the battlefield”.

Lavrov said, “I would like to separately express my gratitude… for the fact that India, and personally Prime Minister Modi, consistently take a balanced position on the Ukrainian crisis and advocate its resolution through dialogue and the elimination of the root causes of this conflict.”

He said Russia “fully shares this approach and from the very beginning of the crisis, we have been talking about Russia’s openness to negotiations, which should lead to the end of the conflict and the establishment of a lasting peace by eliminating its root causes”.

“The relations between our countries have a long history. We can say that they have stood the test of time more than once. Today, Russia and India are developing equal cooperation based on sincere, mutual respect and consideration of each other’s interests. It is difficult to overestimate the contribution of our leaders to this process,” he said.

He mentioned the expanding trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, despite India facing flak from the West for purchasing Russian oil. “Trade and economic cooperation are steadily expanding. We are successfully overcoming the attempts of individual ill-wishers to prevent this. In 2024, bilateral trade exceeded $60 billion. This is the highest result in the entire modern history of relations,” Lavrov said.

The Ukraine war has put India in a delicate diplomatic position with its Western allies. India has also abstained from voting against Russia in several resolutions at the United Nations.

Lavrov said, “Moscow and New Delhi have close or even coinciding views on the objectively emerging multipolar world order which, in our common conviction, should be based on a variety of development models and compliance by all states with the principles of the UN Charter not selectively, but in their entirety and interrelation.”

He mentioned India and Russia collaborating at various multilateral forums, echoing India’s motto of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. “We share the philosophy of the Indian foreign policy concept ‘The whole world is a family’… and value our joint work in the UN, G20, BRICS and SCO,” he said.

In July last year, while thanking Putin for the “gracious hospitality” extended to him and his delegation, Modi invited him to visit India in 2025 for the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit, the Ministry of External Affairs had said then.

Modi also travelled to Kyiv last August and met Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, asking him to sit with Putin to “find a way out of the crisis”.

He visited Russia again in October, this time for the BRICS Summit in Kazan. He has also been invited to the Russian Victory Day celebrations in May this year – there is no official word from Delhi so far on the likelihood of his visit to Moscow.

Earlier this month, in a wide-ranging interaction with podcaster Lex Fridman, Modi, speaking on the Ukraine war, said a resolution is possible only when both Ukraine and Russia come to the negotiating table, and that he can also tell Zelenskyy in a “friendly way that brother, regardless of how many people stand with you in the world, there will never be a resolution on the battlefield… Ukraine may hold countless discussions with their allies, but it will bear no fruit”.