“India is our longstanding friend. Trade between the countries has increased this year. We see India as a great power and our military ties are unparalleled,” Putin said, adding that bilateral trade has risen by 38%, while mutual investments stand at about 38 billion dollars.

The Russian President pointed out that the two countries “cooperate greatly in military and technical sphere like no other nation. We develop high technologies together as well as produce in India, as we are working together on various sectors including energy and space.”

For his part, Modi said in the last few decades, the world witnessed many fundamental changes and different kinds of geopolitical equations emerged, “but the friendship of India and Russia remained constant, they are truly unique.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister General Sergey Shoigu are also accompanying Putin to hold meetings with their host counterparts.

Lavrov met earlier in the day with India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar who took the opportunity to underline his satisfaction with bilateral relations and the state of cooperation.

On the issue of New Dehli buying Russian made weapons en particular the S-400 anti-air missile system, Lavrov underlined that “our Indian friends clearly and firmly explained that they are a sovereign country and they will decide whose weapons to buy and who is going to be a partner of India in this and other areas.”

“We witnessed attempts on the part of the United States to undermine this cooperation and to make India obey American orders, to follow the American vision of how this region should be developed,” Lavrov continued.

The S-400 deal doesn’t have only a symbolic meaning. It has a very important practical meaning for India’s defense capability and thus the deal has been implemented, General Shoigu remarked.

The sides are also talking about the production of Russian Sputnik Light vaccine against Covid-19 in India, among other relevant issues for both countries.

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