Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to visit India for the first time since he ordered the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, a further sign that U.S.-led efforts to isolate him on the world stage are failing.
“After two visits of Prime Minister Modi to Russia, now we have a visit of President Putin to India,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. “We attach a very great importance to these contacts.”
India and Russia held annual summits between the two leaders before the invasion of Ukraine. New Delhi skipped the in-person meeting in December 2022 after Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons in the war, according to people with knowledge of the matter at that time.
Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks when Russia hosted the summit of BRICS states last month. The Indian leader also met Putin in Moscow in July on his first trip to Russia since the war began, and his first bilateral visit after winning a third term in Indian elections.
Modi embraced Putin and called him his “friend” at those talks, which took place a day after a deadly Russian missile strike on a children’s hospital in Kyiv that provoked international outrage.
Modi’s readiness to visit Putin earlier this year sparked concerns in the U.S., which has sought to make the Russian leader a pariah over the war in Ukraine. Still, Washington also knows it needs India to help counter China’s influence in the Asia-Pacific region.
Moscow and New Delhi have had close ties since the Cold War era. India is a major customer for military hardware from Russia and has also emerged as a top buyer of Russian oil since the U.S. and its Group of Seven allies sought to restrict sales over the war.
If Putin does go to India, it will signal his growing confidence about traveling abroad since an arrest warrant against him was issued by the International Criminal Court in March last year for alleged war crimes in Ukraine.
India isn’t an ICC member and isn’t obliged to implement the warrant. Still, Putin opted not to attend last year’s G-20 summit in India.
In September, Putin visited Mongolia, which is an ICC member state and faced international criticism for failing to meet its obligation to enforce the warrant.
South Africa, which is a signatory, asked Putin not to attend last year’s BRICS summit because of the warrant. Putin declined to go to this week’s G-20 in Brazil, which is also an ICC member state, saying his presence at the summit would have been a distraction because of the warrant.
