NEW DELHI: Ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India next month, external affairs minister S Jaishankar called on the President and handed over a personal message from PM Narendra Modi to him. Putin committed to continuing fertiliser supplies to India in the meeting.The minister said he briefed him about the “very productive” meeting of the 27th India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation and also discussed important regional and global issues with the President.Modi and Putin will meet on the margins of the SCO summit in Kyrgyzstan on Aug 31-Sept 1 before Putin travels to India for the BRICS summit on September 12.In his remarks, Putin focused on growing trade and energy ties and also the issue of fertilisers, saying Russia is doing everything to resolve this issue for Indian farmers and for the country’s agricultural sector.“There are many items on the agenda, which extends far beyond energy supplies. Fertiliser shipments are among these matters. Russia is expanding its exports and are ready to continue doing so. There are other matters too regarding nuclear energy, cooperation in high technology and other sectors – they are all on the agenda, and there has been steady progress on all these fronts,” said Putin, adding that after the slight decline last year, trade was again increasing.“PM [Narendra Modi] deserves much of the credit for this, considering his commitment to keeping a close eye on the development of Russia-India relations,” he said, adding he was looking forward to meeting him at the SCO summit and that the leaders may meet again this year. Jaishankar told Putin that Modi was looking forward to welcoming him for the BRICS summit.Jaishankar met Russian first deputy PM Denis Manturov earlier in the day. “Our discussions focused on our wide – ranging cooperation in trade, investments, energy, fertilisers, nuclear, connectivity, technology, space and mobility domains,” he said.According to Jaishankar, both sides focused also on de-risking and diversifying and further expanding engagement with businesses by aligning institutional mechanisms with industry priorities, identifying practical bottlenecks and improving policy responsiveness.
