Putin holds talks with Indian defense minister
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday held talks with Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, the Kremlin press service has said, distributing a muted video showing the two greeting each other.
The meeting was also attended by Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov.
Singh and Belousov held separate talks earlier in the day, discussing defense and security cooperation between the two countries.
During the meeting, Singh said that “despite the geopolitical challenges and immense public and private pressure on India, India has made a conscious decision to not only continue close contacts with Russia but also to deepen and expand our cooperation.”
“We will always stand together with our Russian colleagues,” he stressed.
On Monday, the Indian defense minister visited Russia’s Kaliningrad Region, where he attended a ceremony to commission a new frigate built for the Indian Navy at the Yantar shipyard. The vessel, INS Tushil, is the seventh of the Talwar-class frigates ordered by the country’s Navy, and the inaugural one of the third production batch.
Speaking during the event, the head of Russia’s arms export agency, Rosoboronexport, Aleksandr Mikheev, said the two countries currently have around ten joint naval projects, with a number of other initiatives in various stages of discussion.
Moscow remains committed to “implementing all agreements reached at the highest level,” Belousov said, noting that engagement between Moscow and New Delhi has deepened thanks to contacts between the two countries’ leaders. Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a bilateral summit in Moscow this past July, and also met in Kazan in October, when Russia hosted the BRICS summit.
