PM Modi, President Putin ride together to reach venue of bilateral talks
Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov said earlier that it would be the first in-person meeting between Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi in 2025
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared the same car to reach the venue of their bilateral talks on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, according to a video posted on Telegram by VGTRK reporter Pavel Zarubin.
The journalist said that the decision for the two leaders to ride together had been made on the spot, and “no one was aware of it.” Zarubin did not specify whose car it was.
Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov said earlier that it would be the first in-person meeting between Putin and Modi in 2025 although they maintained regular contact over the phone. According to Ushakov, the meeting will particularly address preparations for Putin’s visit to India, scheduled for December.
The talks will involved Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, First Deputy Prime
Minister Denis Manturov, Deputy Prime Minister Alexey Overchuk, Deputy Chief of
Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Maxim Oreshkin, Kremlin Spokesman
Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin Aide Yury Ushakov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov,
Transport Minister Andrey Nikitin, and Energy Minister Sergey Tsivilyov, as well as Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and special presidential envoy on cooperation with other countries, Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin and Roscosmos Deputy Director General Sergey Savelyev. Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted that he always enjoys meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Always a delight to meet President Putin!” Modi wrote on X after meeting with Putin before the start of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin.
Modi later posted photos of his conversations with Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit. “Interactions in Tianjin continue! Exchanging perspectives with President Putin and President Xi during the SCO Summit,” he wrote.
In Tianjin, Modi also met with the presidents of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan, as well as the Armenian prime minister. They discussed developing bilateral relations.
