During their phone call on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi of his "inability" to attend the G20 conference in New Delhi the following month. Putin announced that Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, would travel to India to attend the summit on his behalf. This summit is anticipated to be one of the biggest gatherings of world leaders ever held in India.
While acknowledging his country's decision, Russian President Vladimir Putin received praise from PM Modi for his nation's "consistent support" of all activities under India's G20 Presidency.
The two leaders also discussed the status of a number of bilateral cooperation projects and traded opinions on regional and global matters of interest, including the just-concluded BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, during their phone discussion, according to the prime minister.
The statement stated that the two leaders decided to keep in touch.
The spokesperson for the Russian president had earlier stated that Putin does not have plans to travel to India to attend the G20 conference. The President does not intend to attend the G20 Summit, so no. A special military operation is currently the major focus, according to Dmitry Peskov's statement from the previous week.
Putin once more congratulated PM Modi on the successful Chandrayaan-3 landing on the moon's south pole during the call. They reiterated their commitment to expanding their bilateral space exploration collaboration, according to a statement from a Kremlin official.
In the spirit of the unique and privileged strategic cooperation, the current challenges of Russian-Indian ties that are continuously growing were also touched upon.
The two presidents also pledged to work together to expand global transportation and logistics infrastructure and to consistently carry out large-scale energy sector projects.
The G20 Summit will be held in Delhi, India, on September 9 and 10. A total of 29 heads of state, senior EU officials, and guest nations are anticipated to attend the two-day event.
The G20 Summit is organized once a year and is presided over by a rotating president.
Recently, India was elected to lead the G20 for one year, from December 1, 2022, to November 30, 2023. India hosted more than 200 meetings in more than 50 cities after acquiring the G20 presidency.
