NEW DELHI: Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit India next year under India-Russia annual summit mechanism that takes place alternatively in the two countries. Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Moscow this year for the summit, it's Putin's turn to visit India for the next annual summit. "We are looking forward to the visit.
The dates will be mutually worked out soon," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, in a video interaction with some Indian journalists in New Delhi. India and Russia have so far held 24 annual summit mechanisms. The last one took place in July this year when Modi visited Moscow.
The last time the summit took place in India was in 2021 when Putin visited Delhi. The annual summit didn't take place in 2022 and 2023 as Modi couldn't travel to Moscow, mainly because of Russia's preoccupation with the Ukraine war. If Putin does indeed come for the summit next year, it will be his first visit to India since the war started.
Asked to comment on US President Joe Biden's decision to let Ukraine strike targets inside Russia with US-supplied longer-range missiles, Peskov said Russia's military capabilities are incomparable to those of Ukraine and it's unlikely that any missile will help Ukraine. Peskov's comments came on a day when Putin signed a revised nuclear doctrine declaring that a conventional attack on Russia by any nation that is supported by a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack on his country..