Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi began summit talks in New Delhi on Friday (December 5), as Modi told the Russian leader India supported peace efforts in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Earlier in the day, Putin also visited the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial where he laid a wreath and scattered flowers as a mark of respect.
Putin is on his first visit to India in four years, aiming to boost trade with the top buyer of Russia's arms and seaborne oil as Western sanctions squeeze their decades-old ties.
The visit comes at a time when New Delhi is engaged in talks with the U.S. for a trade deal to cut punitive tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on its goods over India's Russian oil purchases.
Moscow has been India's top arms supplier for decades and has said that it wants to import more Indian goods in an effort to grow trade to $100 billion by 2030 that so far has been skewed in its favor due to New Delhi's energy imports.
