19th India-Russia Annual Bilateral Summit, October 4-5; Putin to Visit

In a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs, it was announced that President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin will be visiting India during the 19th India-Russia Annual Bilateral Summit that will be held in New Delhi on October 4 and 5. Russia is one of two countries that India holds bilateral summits on a yearly basis with, the other being Japan. In 2010, this bilateral relationship between both Russia and India was raised in status to “Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership”. Both nations are also members of the BRICS group of nations.

Putin will meet with Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, and also the President, Ram Nath Kovind, during his visit. One of the topics anticipated to be discussed will be the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) that has been declared by the president US government under President Donald Trump, and will become effective in January 2019. This Act will specifically target any defence deals that India has with Russia, most notably the purchase of four S-400 air defence missile systems from Russia.

Apart from this, the overall nature of discussions will most likely focus on the specifics of increasing mutual investments by both countries to reach the $50 billion target by the year 2025. The previous target was $30 billion, but this has already been reached. This discussion was initiated during the Indian External Affairs Minister’s visit to Russia earlier in September 2018, for the 23rd India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Technical and Economic Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC).