Russia's Shoigu meets Doval, says committed to further active cooperation with India

Russia is committed to further active cooperation with India to form a more just and sustainable world order and ensure the supremacy of international law, Russian Security Council secretary Sergey Shoigu said Thursday as he met NSA Ajit Doval in Moscow.

Doval arrived in the Russian capital on Wednesday to hold crucial talks on bilateral energy and defence ties and to prepare the ground for President Vladimir Putin's visit to India later this year.

His visit commenced on a day when US President Donald Trump issued an executive order slapping an additional 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods as a penalty for buying Russian oil, doubling the tariff to 50 per cent.

During his meeting with Doval, Shoigu said Russia and India are linked by "strong, time-tested ties of friendship."

"A multi-level trust-based political dialogue is effectively functioning between our countries now. It is based on regular contacts between President Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is important to determine the dates for the next full-scale negotiations between our leaders," he was quoted as saying by the state-run TASS news agency.

On 19 November 2024, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that Putin would visit India.

Doval has said during his meetings in Moscow that dates for Putin's visit to India are being worked out, according to sources. No specific date or time has been indicated by the NSA in his engagements, they said on Thursday.

"NSA Doval, during his visit to Moscow, has said that the dates for President Putin's visit to India are being worked out," said a source. The time of end-August being reported in some media is incorrect, the sources said.

Shoigu said that for Moscow, the most important thing is to comprehensively strengthen the special privileged strategic partnership with India, which is based on "mutual respect, trust, equal consideration of each other's interests, and the desire to promote a unifying agenda".

"We are committed to further active cooperation to form a new, more just and sustainable world order, ensure the rule of international law and jointly combat modern challenges and threats," Shoigu said.

Doval expressed hope that the summit meeting would provide new directions for the development of bilateral relations and produce a “tangible and substantial" result of the talks, TASS reported.

According to local reports, Doval is likely to meet top Russian officials to discuss defence and economic cooperation.

Separately, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said Russia will brief NSA Doval on US special envoy Steve Witkoff's talks with President Putin on Wednesday, following which an agreement has been reached to hold a US-Russian summit as soon as next week.

“Everyone knows already that yesterday, immediately after Witkoff’s report, Trump called a number of its leading European partners and discussed the matter with them, I would like to note that we have also, using appropriate channels, already started to inform our closest partners and friends about the issues that were discussed during the mentioned meeting with Witkoff,” Ushakov said.

Besides India, Russia is also expected to brief China in detail as the two of its closest partners have become the target of Western attacks for buying oil from Moscow.

Russia has emerged as India's top energy supplier since the West slapped sanctions on its crude oil after the invasion of Ukraine.

The NSA was also expected to press Moscow to ensure early delivery of remaining two regiments of S-400 air defence systems to India, which played a crucial role during Operation Sindoor.

India signed a USD 5.43 billion deal with Russia in 2018 for five squadrons of the S-400 Triumf missile system, a state-of-the-art air defence platform capable of engaging multiple aerial threats at long ranges. Three squadrons have already been delivered.

With PTI inputs