New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will travel to Moscow next week to hold crucial talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, amid some strain in India’s ties with the US over New Delhi’s procurement of crude oil from Russia.
Jaishankar’s trip to Russia comes days after National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval travelled to Russia and met President Vladimir Putin and several top-ranking officials.
The two sides are also likely to give final touches to various elements of Putin’s visit to India later this year, people familiar with the external affairs minister’s trip to Moscow said.
Deputy spokesperson of Russia’s foreign ministry Aleksey Fadeyev said in Moscow that the heads of the two countries’ foreign offices will discuss “most important issues of the bilateral agenda”.
The people cited above said Jaishankar will be on a two-day visit to Russia and is likely to call on Putin, besides holding wide-ranging talks with Foreign Minister Lavrov.
The external affairs minister is also expected to co-chair the 26th session of the India-Russia Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic, Scientific-Technological and Cultural Cooperation.
The Russian delegation at the dialogue is likely to be led by First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov.
India’s continued energy procurement from Russia is likely to figure in Jaishankar’s meetings with Russian leaders in Moscow.
US President Donald Trump issued an executive order last week, slapping an additional 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods as a penalty for New Delhi’s continued purchase of Russian oil.
The additional duties raised the overall tariff on India to 50 per cent.
Defending its purchase of Russian crude oil, India has been maintaining that its energy procurement is driven by national interest and market dynamics.
India turned to purchasing Russian oil sold at a discount after Western countries imposed sanctions on Moscow and shunned its supplies over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Consequently, from a mere 1.7 per cent share in total oil imports in 2019-20, Russia’s share increased to 35.1 per cent in 2024-25, and it is now the biggest oil supplier to India.
During Jaishankar’s visit to Moscow, the two sides are also likely to deliberate on the Ukraine conflict.
India has been consistently calling for an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to Moscow in July last year and told Putin that a solution to the Ukraine conflict is not possible on the battlefield and peace efforts do not succeed in the midst of bombs and bullets.
The next month, Modi visited the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv and conveyed to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that both Ukraine and Russia should sit together, without wasting time, to end the war.
PTI
