India’s Modi lands in Russia for first visit since Ukraine war • FRANCE 24 English

India’s Modi lands in Russia for first visit since Ukraine war • FRANCE 24 English

now the Indian Prime Minister narandra Modi has touched down in Moscow it’s his first visit to Russia since its invasion of Ukraine New Delhi hasn’t condemn the war but it’s advocated a peaceful solution and remains a key trading partner treade between the two sides sharply increased to 65 billion dollars in the last Financial year due to strong energy cooporation Vladimir Putin will no doubt be using Mod’s visit to demonstrate to the West that he isn’t a pariah on the world stage we can now bring in F 24’s Chief foreign editor uh Rob Rob good afternoon now whatever happens with this trip whatever the outcome Putin’s going to use this to his Advantage isn’t he well he’s going to try to it’s interesting that that it should be happening at the time when the NATO Summit is about to start off in the US so he will of course he’ll be try to do it the fact that he’s recently seen Orban the Hungarian prime minister uh as well you know he’s trying to put across the impression that he’s not isolated on the world stage but you know seeing uh the leader of North Korea and seeing uh Orban who’s not who whose visit wasn’t seen by the European Union as part as an official European Union visit to to Moscow uh doesn’t really add up to the sort of international recognition that he would like getting narendro Modi however is a d different cattle of fish that is a much more serious visit uh but how much he’ll get out of it is is is another matter though I think Narendra Modi will go to Moscow being being very cautious it’s in his interest to go now because he’s concerned about the developing relationship between Russia and China he will want to get a sounding I think from uh President Putin about what that precisely means and how far Russia wants to go with that relationship uh and how damaging potentially it could be for India because India regards China as its greatest geopolitical threat uh and is concerned that the coing relationship between CH China and Russia could be potentially threatening to India given the fact that uh India’s main arm Supply even today uh you know all these decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union is Russia even today you know 60% of the weapons that Russia H that India has in its inventory are of either Soviet or Russian origin it is true that the the the amount of armaments coming into India from Russia is much diminished Now by comparison with say the 1990s still around 30% or so but you know those are the concerns that Modi will be going to to Moscow about he he’s going that open eyed he’s pulled back from Russia over the years you mentioned that he hasn’t been there since 2015 he was in Russia in 2019 economic Forum in vladas stock uh but he’s met Putin less and less it used to be the case that uh the Indian and Russian leaders would meet once a year for a bilateral Summit not happening anymore and I don’t see this as being a change in that direction I think Narendra Modi feels he’s the leader of a very powerful growing country the largest population in the world the fastest growing economy in the world he’s the one who can call the shots he’s the one who can call the shots but uh while the West won’t necessarily uh say anything about the visit they will know that be watching won’t they yes of course they’ll be watching and there already been one or two shots across the IND Indians uh bows for instance the the US uh ambassador to India warned the Indian uh enter prises Not To Break sanctions uh W against Russia because there’s been a considerable amount of concern in the west about certain companies in India doing precisely that although there has been a degree of tolerance for the very reason that I just mentioned that the the West needs India as well India is a very rapidly developing economy very big population uh a lot of West Western investment going into India so you know the Indians know that they can play this game as long as they’re very cautious about it but the you know the fact of the matter is the West sees that India in many respects has saved the Russian economy over the last two years you mentioned that $65 billion do worth of oil imported the West could well do without without that but it’s not going to happen

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Russia on Monday, as the Indian leader treaded a fine line between maintaining a longstanding relationship with Moscow and courting closer Western security ties. The visit is Modi’s first since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and since he was returned to power last month as leader of the world’s most populous country.
#Modi #Russia #Ukraine

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