New Delhi: External affairs minister S Jaishankar is expected to visit Russia next week to attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and for bilateral discussions aimed at preparing for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to India next month, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
Jaishankar is expected to be in Moscow on November 17 for the meeting of SCO’s Council of the Heads of Government, people familiar with planning for the visit on both sides said on condition of anonymity. Jaishankar is also expected to hold a separate meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, they said.
Putin is expected to be in New Delhi during December 4-5 for the annual India-Russia Summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is set to be his first visit to India since the start of the invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, though he met Modi on the margins of the SCO Summit in China earlier this year.
Neither India nor Russia have formally announced the visit by Jaishankar or Putin’s planned trip to India.
Lavrov was expected to visit New Delhi in early November but called off the trip last month, the people said. This will be Jaishankar’s second visit to Russia since August, and the meeting between him and Lavrov will help prepare the grounds for Putin’s visit, during which several big ticket deliverables are expected, they said.
{{/usCountry}}Lavrov was expected to visit New Delhi in early November but called off the trip last month, the people said. This will be Jaishankar’s second visit to Russia since August, and the meeting between him and Lavrov will help prepare the grounds for Putin’s visit, during which several big ticket deliverables are expected, they said.
{{/usCountry}}Jaishankar’s visit will also come at a time when India has been facing renewed pressure from the US to reduce purchases of Russian energy and military hardware as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Russia emerged as one of India’s top energy suppliers after the West imposed sanctions on Moscow, though deliveries of crude oil have fallen in recent weeks after the US threatened secondary sanctions against Indian refiners.
The meeting of SCO’s Council of the Heads of Government in Moscow during November 17-18 will see Russia taking over the rotating presidency of the bloc from China. India has usually been represented at meetings of the Council of the Heads of Government by the foreign minister.
Pakistan foreign minister Ishaq Dar is also set to attend the SCO meeting in Moscow but a bilateral meeting with Jaishankar on the margins of the event is not expected, the people said.