Astana [Kazakhstan], July 7 : External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Sunday said it is a great opportunity for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin to have direct talks on trade during PM Modi's visit to Moscow.
Highlighting the trade imbalance issues, EAM Jaishankar said that at a leadership level, it will be a great opportunity.
"There are issues...like the trade imbalance...So, at a leadership level, it will be a great opportunity for Prime Minister Modi and President Putin to sit down and directly talk to each other. And then obviously, as per their directions, we will see how to take the relationship forward," he said.
Calling the India-Russia Annual Bilateral Summit a "good tradition", Jaishankar said that there has been a slippage in our annual summits.
"Now, this was a tradition. It's a good tradition. We are two countries that have such a strong and very steady history of working together. So both of us value very much the need for an annual summit," he told ANI.
Jaishankar further recalled his last visit to Russia during the end of the year.
"Even last year, I went to Moscow at the end of the year, and at that time, I carried a message from the prime minister that we are committed to the annual summit, and we will do it sooner rather than later," he said.
He continued, that the annual summit is a regular occurrence and a way of taking stock of the India-Russia relationship.
"It's something that was waiting to happen. It's a regular occurrence. It is a way of taking stock of any relationship," the minister said.
"What you do is you look at the state of the world, there are things you want to do more. There are things you want to do differently. One of the big changes has actually been that our economic relationship with Russia has grown tremendously," he added.
PM Modi will be heading to Moscow on July 8 at the invitation of the Russian President to hold the 22nd India-Russia Annual Summit.
Notably, this will be the 22nd India-Russia Annual Bilateral Summit. The 21st bilateral Summit was held in December 2021 when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited New Delhi.
PM Modi is expected to discuss issues of regional and global importance with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra on Friday said that the next day after his arrival he would engage with the Indian community in Russia, adding that he will also visit to Kremlin.
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