India and Russia have started the preparations for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to St Petersburg early in June.  Modi will attend an international economic forum, besides the annual summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar visited Moscow for the India-Russia Foreign Office consultation this week. He met his counterparts Igor Morgulov and Sergey Ryabkov, both deputy foreign ministers.

They discussed a range of bilateral relations between India and Russia, including preparations for the 18th India-Russia annual summit, participation of the prime minister as the chief guest at the 21st St Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 1 and 2 and plans to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, said Gopal Baglay, external affairs ministry spokesperson.

“Both sides (India and Russia) acknowledged the commonality of their positions on regional and global issues, reform of international institutions, cooperation against terrorism and narcotics and cooperation in regional groups like SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation), BRICS (a bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and RIC (a bloc organising Russia-India-China),” the MEA stated in a press release on Saturday.

The foreign secretary also called on Yuri Ushakov, the foreign policy adviser to the Russian president, as well as Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Federation Council.
DH News Service