Due to the rising cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, the delegation size has been trimmed.
India and Russia will ink ten agreements in several sectors, including defence, climate change, trade, among others, during the 21st edition of the annual bilateral summit between two countries, scheduled to take place next week. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold the bilateral talks on December 6.
According to Russian agency TASS, which quoted Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov, about ten bilateral agreements will be inked between the two countries, which will include some semi-confidential ones. He refused to divulge the details of the agreements as they are still in the process. However, he said that the agreements are important for the development of bilateral ties in the most diverse areas.
Due to the rising cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, the delegation size has been trimmed. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin and Ushakov are part of Vladimir Putin's delegation. The two countries will also hold their inaugural 2+2 meeting on December 6 between the foreign and defence ministers of the respective countries.
The two leaders will discuss bilateral, regional and international political and defence issues. The two heads have been in frequent telephonic contact on bilateral and global issues during the Covod-19 pandemic. The Russian president had recently said that Moscow regarded New Delhi as one of the strong independent centres of a multipolar world with foreign policy priorities and a philosophy that is close to his country. On Saturday, the Indian government gave approval for the production of 5 lakh AK-203 assault rifles at Korwa in Uttar Pradesh.