Russia, China and India have been hard at work to strengthen their diplomatic and economic ties to ensure a successful BRICS Summit of national leaders in Kazan, Russia on Oct. 22-24. The highlights are as follows:
July 2024: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks during the July 8-9 two-day official visit of the Prime Minister to Moscow the Kremlin reported. The talks were generally regarding maintaining friendly relations between the two powers, and international and regional issues. The leaders later adopted Leaders’ Joint Statement on the development of strategic areas of Russia-India economic cooperation for the period up to 2030, as well as Joint Statement following the 22nd India-Russia Annual Summit India-Russia: Enduring and Expanding Partnership were adopted. At their informal meeting on July 8, President Putin notably observed the fact that India has the highest birth rate in the world at 23 million babies born annually, which “shows that people are planning their families and lives, and their planning horizon is expanding. It means that they feel comfortable and stable.”
July 2024: China and India held their 30th round of talks in New Delhi regarding border disputes on July 31, 2024, and “The two sides agreed to actively implement the important common understandings reached at the recent bilateral meeting between the two foreign ministers, focus on specific issues related to the China-India border, accommodate each other’s legitimate concerns and reach a mutually acceptable solution at an early date,” read the statement issued by China’s Foreign Ministry on Aug. 1.
September: On Sept. 12 Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Kumar Doval in St. Petersburg, on the sidelines of the BRICS meeting of national security officials, where Putin and Doval, where Doval briefed the President on Prime Minister Modi’s recent closed-door meeting with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, in a meeting that Doval had also attended in Kyiv.
Additionally, Putin said to Doval: “We will be expecting Mr. Modi in Kazan. I also suggest holding a bilateral meeting there on Oct. 22 in order to close the books on our joint work in implementing the agreements reached during his [July 8-9] visit to Moscow and outline some prospects for the near future.”
