Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in India on Friday for a three-day visit that will combine his participation in the 18th BRICS Summit with bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as New Delhi and Moscow look to deepen cooperation across trade, investment, energy and other strategic sectors.
Putin, who is travelling with a high-level delegation, was received at the airport by Minister of State K V Singh.
"Warmly welcome President Vladimir Putin of Russia for the 18th BRICS Summit. He was received by MoS K V Singh at the airport. India and Russia share multifaceted and longstanding ties anchored in Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a post on X.
Putin and Modi are scheduled to hold bilateral talks on Friday afternoon, with discussions expected to span defence, energy, technology, pharmaceuticals, trade and investment, as well as people-to-people ties.
The visit also marks Putin's first in-person appearance at a BRICS summit outside Russia since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022.
India is hosting the two-day BRICS Summit in New Delhi beginning Saturday. The gathering is expected to focus on strengthening the grouping's collective resilience in areas including food and energy security, healthcare, disaster risk reduction and critical supply chains.
New Delhi is seeking to position BRICS as an effective platform for navigating an increasingly fragmented geopolitical and economic environment.
The summit comes at a time of heightened global uncertainty, with the Russia-Ukraine war, the crisis in West Asia, particularly the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, and the Trump administration's trade and tariff policies weighing on the global economic outlook.
Several major world leaders are expected in New Delhi for the summit, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali and Vietnamese Prime Minister Le Minh Hung are also among the leaders attending the gathering.
