Russia Hosts India’s PM Modi on State Visit
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a two-day state visit to Russia starting on Monday (July 8), Reuters reports.
Leader of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, Modi was re-elected as India’s prime minister earlier this year, having been in the role since 2014.
In a statement to the press, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Modi’s visit to Moscow would begin with an informal meeting with Putin on Monday evening, Reuters reports.
The two leaders would talk “with a free agenda one-on-one,” Peskov said.
A top Indian official told Reuters last week that Modi is keen to use his meeting with Putin to address India’s trade imbalance with Russia and to secure the discharge of Indian citizens who were tricked into fighting with the Russian army in Ukraine. The young Indian men had responded to Facebook advertisements offering good wages for work as security guards in Russia but were instead ordered to face the Ukrainian military.
Analysts with the New York Times have noted that Modi’s attendance in Moscow is also a way for him to show India’s intention to maintain a strong partnership with Russia, despite its deepening relationship with the United States.
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