PM Modi, Russian President Putin expected to meet on sidelines of BRICS summit

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to meet next month on the sidelines of the upcoming BRICS summit in South Africa. According to the latest reports, both world leaders will attend the summit in Johannesburg.

The announcement was reportedly made by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who put all speculations to rest and declared that both Modi and Putin would attend the summit. This made it likely that the two world leaders would deal with each other.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to discuss bilateral economic issues. They also discussed matters related to the Ukrainian conflict. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the ASEAN-India ministerial meeting in the Indonesian capital.

"Today I met with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of Russia in Jakarta. We discussed bilateral economic issues as well as matters related to the Ukraine conflict,” Jaishankar tweeted. It was their second meeting in just over a month.

India has become the leading importer of discounted oil from Russia. This further strengthened Indo-Russian ties. Amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, this India-Russia trade has raised a few eyebrows in the West.