Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may meet in the second half of 2021. This was announced on April 15 by the Ambassador of India to the Russian Federation Datla Bala Venkatesh Varma at a meeting with journalists.
“Due to the pandemic, the meeting between the Prime Minister of India and the Russian President was postponed to a later date. It will take place in the second half of this year. There is no exact date yet, ”the ambassador said.
Varma also noted that production of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine will begin in India in May. On April 12, it was reported that the country approved the use of this drug.
Earlier, on April 6, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov conveyed to his Indian counterpart Mubramaniyam Jaishankar Putin’s oral message addressed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to the Russian minister, during the talks, the parties discussed the content of the upcoming bilateral contacts, including summit meetings. As Lavrov noted, we are talking about the visit of the Russian President to India.
The day before, it was reported that the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Panacea Biotec agreed to jointly produce the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in India. As explained in the RDIF, we are talking about the production of 100 million doses of the drug per year.
Prior to that, on March 30, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov named countries friendly to the Russian Federation, including India, China and Asian countries, as well as the CIS republics.