Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with India's National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval at the Konstantinovsky Palace in St. Petersburg. During their talks, Putin discussed the development of strategic partnerships between India and Russia and emphasized the importance of security issues in their bilateral relationship. Putin also thanked India for maintaining dialogue in this area.
It is worth noting that, amid renewed efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict, NSA Ajit Doval met Russian President Vladimir Putin. This meeting took place during the National Security Advisors' conference of BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) countries.
During this time, Putin extended an invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, next month. Additionally, the Russian President proposed a bilateral meeting with PM Modi on October 22 during the BRICS summit. According to Russian media, Putin expressed that they eagerly await their good friend PM Modi and sent him best wishes. In response, NSA Ajit Doval conveyed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's gratitude.
Prior to this, Ajit Doval had comprehensive talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, discussing significant issues of mutual interest. Commenting on the discussions between Doval and Shoigu, the Indian Embassy in Russia stated that both sides reviewed progress in bilateral cooperation and deliberated on key issues of mutual concern. Doval's visit to Russia comes roughly two and a half weeks after Prime Minister Modi's visit to Ukraine.
Talking to Zelensky earlier, PM Modi had mentioned that both Ukraine and Russia should sit down to end the war without wasting time and that India is ready to "play an active role" to restore peace in the region. The Prime Minister said that India has always supported peace since the beginning of the conflict and that he would like to personally contribute to a peaceful resolution of the crisis.
