Vladimir Putin may visit India in first half of 2021, says Russian envoy Nikolay Kudashev

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was scheduled to visit India in 2020, might visit the country during the first six months of the next year, Nikolay Kudashev, Russia’s ambassador to India said on December 21. Speaking to Sputnik, the Russian diplomat stated that although coronavirus pandemic has scaled down the frequency of face to face meetings, the Russo-India dialogue still remains intense. Putin was scheduled to visit India in October but despite colossal preparations, his visit was postponed due to COVID-19.  

"It became more difficult to maintain contacts due to the pandemic. It has affected the frequency of face-to-face meetings, but the Russian-Indian political and economic dialogue has not become less intense. Summits are the highest point of the dialogue. The summit was due to be held in October. There have been large-scale preparations, but it has been decided by mutual agreement to postpone the meeting until the next year. When will the meeting take place? The sooner the better. I hope we will receive the Russian president in India in the first half of the coming year," ANI quoted Kudashev as saying.

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Free Trade Zone

Kudashev also revealed the possibility of a free trade zone to be established between India and the Eurasian Economic Union. In addendum to Russia, the EAEU includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan. Apart from economic deals, the ambassador said that a convention on the military deal could also be convened during early 2021. 

"If we talk about which documents and agreements were decisive for the trade and economic agenda and which agreements and documents need to be formalized next year, then I would probably mention the following -- well, first of all, there is an interesting agreement on formalizing a deal on a free trade zone between India and the EAEU ... Several rounds of technical negotiations took place," said the ambassador.

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