Modi Austria visit highlights: PM arrives in Vienna

Austrian artists sang Vande Mataram to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the hotel Ritz-Carlton in Vienna. See video.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived at the hotel Ritz-Carlton in Vienna. He also greeted members of the Indian diaspora at the hotel. Watch the video here.

"Landed in Vienna. This visit to Austria is a special one. Our nations are connected by shared values and a commitment to a better planet. Looking forward to the various programmes in Austria including talks with Chancellor Karl Nehammer, interactions with the Indian community and more," PM Modi wrote on X.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Austria on Tuesday after concluding his two-day visit to Russia. Notably, this is the first time an Indian Prime Minister has visited Austria in 41 years. In 1983, Indira Gandhi was the last PM to visit the country.

“I think this is proof of the prestige, dignity and honour that India has received globally, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” says Sudhanshu Trivedi, BJP's Rajya Sabha member.

Members of the Indian diaspora in Austria's capital, Vienna, arrive to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of his arrival in the European nation. PM Modi will meet both Austria's President Alexander Van der Bellen and Chancellor Karl Nehammer.

“Congratulations to PM Narendra Modi on being conferred with Russia's highest civilian award, the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle, today. This is a glorious honour to the nation, which stands as a testament to the formidable stature attained by Bharat in the global arena under the leadership of PM Modi. The new award in the list of global accolades garnered by PM Modi over the last ten years not only boosts every Indian's pride but also immortalises the India-Russia friendship,” tweets Union home minister Amit Shah

Prime Minister Narendra Modi leaves for Austria for the second and final leg of his state visit, and after a ‘fruitful’ two-day stay in Russia.

The Order of St. Andrew the Apostle was given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his contribution to fostering India-Russia ties. The award was announced in 2019. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the first Indian leader to be conferred with this award: PMO

“When the leaders spoke of defence, I would not like to have a specific comment on the co-production of aircraft, but in the general space of defence, the larger domain of co-production was definitely emphasized by both leaders. We already have some good examples of co-production in the field of defence and we would very much like to build on that,” says foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra

“With regard to the delay in the spare parts of the defence equipment, it was raised by the PM, both sides had a general sense of agreement that this would be expedited including through setting up joint venture partnerships in India to look at some of these spare parts, particularly the more critical spare parts,” says Vinay Kwatra.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday raised Russia’s missile strike on a children’s hospital in Ukraine with President Vladimir Putin and again nudged him to return to the path of dialogue and diplomacy, saying no solution can be found on the battlefield. Deep dive

Russian president Vladimir Putin congratulates PM Narendra Modi, who was honoured with Russia's highest civilian award. “Dear friend, from the bottom of my heart, I would like to congratulate you for this highest Russian award and wish you good health, success and all the best. To the friendly people of India, I wish peace and prosperity,” he said

“In the past 2.5 decades, under your leadership, India-Russia relations have strengthened in all directions and have scaled new heights each time. The foundation of strategic ties between the two nations that you had laid has only further strengthened with the passing of time. Our mutual cooperation, based on people-to-partnership, is becoming the hope and guarantee of a better future of our people,” the prime minister said on the highest civilian honour conferred to him.

“This is the honour of the centuries-old deep friendship and mutual trust between India and Russia. This is the honour of our special and privileged strategic partnership,” PM Modi added

Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanks Putin for Russia's highest civilian award. “I extend my heartfelt gratitude to you (President Putin) for honouring me with Russia's highest (civilian) award. This honour is not just mine, this is the honour of 140 crore Indians.”

Russian ambassador to India Denis Alipov speaks on PM Modi's visit to Russia. “We have welcomed the Prime Minister in Russia. This visit is significant in terms of discussing global matters and regional matters, most of all in terms of reviewing bilateral relationships which are very extended.”

“We have a lot of prospective projects in the pipeline which have been discussed and are being implemented already, be it in oil & gas, defence, or culture. In every sphere, we have a great scope of bilateral engagements,” the ambassador told ANI.

“We expect the PM to come in for the BRICS summit also. We are looking forward to continuing the annual exchange of summits, the practice that has been going on for the last 20 years...We are looking forward to a high-level delegation visit from Russia to India,” he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been conferred Russia's highest civilian honour , Order of St Andrew the Apostle, by Russian president Putin

The Order was established in 1698 by Tsar Peter the Great, in honour of Saint Andrew, the first apostle of Jesus and patron saint of Russia. It is only awarded for the most outstanding civilian or military merit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to social platform X to reflect on his interaction with Russian president Putin. “Held productive discussions with President Putin at the Kremlin today. Our talks covered ways to diversify India-Russia cooperation in sectors such as trade, commerce, security, agriculture, technology and innovation. We attach great importance to boosting connectivity and people-to-people exchanges," the prime minister said

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tells Putin,"Peace talks do not succeed amidst bombs, guns and bullets. For a bright future of new generation, peace is most essential. I assure you and world community that India is on side of peace; it gives me hope after listening to you yesterday."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanks Russian president Vladimir Putin for the private dinner at his residence. “Perhaps this is such a meeting that the focus of the entire world is on this visit of mine. The entire world is drawing out different meanings of this visit...Yesterday, you invited me to your residence and like a true friend we spent 4-5 hours together. We discussed several topics. I am happy that we openly discussed the issue of Ukraine in detail and we tried to listen and respectfully understand each other's opinions.”

PM Modi says,"The last 5 years were very concerning, challenging for entire world, entire humankind. We had to go through several problems. First, due to COVID and later the era of conflicts and tensions in various parts caused several issues for humankind...Even in such a situation, when the world was facing a food-fuel-fertiliser crisis, due to India-Russia friendship and cooperation I did not let the farmers of my country face a crisis of fertiliser."

“Our friendship has played a huge role towards this. We are committed to the interest of farmers. Even in the days to come, we would want our cooperation with Russia to further advance in the interest of farmers,” Modi added

PM Modi tells Putin,"For restoration of peace, India is ready to cooperate in all ways...I assure you and the world community that India is in favour of peace. Listening to my friend Putin talk about peace yesterday, gives me hope. I would like to say to my media friends - Possible."

“We would want our cooperation with Russia to expand further so as to ensure welfare of our farmers. When world faced shortage of food, fuel & fertilisers; we did not allow our farmers to face problem and ties with Russia played role in it,” PM Modi tells Putin

PM Modi thanks Russian president Putin for fuel support amid global crisis, says,"When the world was facing the challenge of fuels, your support helped us fulfil the petrol and diesel requirements of the common man. Not just this, the world should accept that India-Russia agreement regarding fuel played a big role in bringing stability to the international market."