new Delhi: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in New Delhi on Thursday and is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Foreign Minister Dr S Jaishankar on April 1, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
This is Russia’s first high-level visit since the nation went to war with Ukraine.
According to the report of news agency IANS, Lavrov will meet Jaishankar on Friday evening and by 5.50 pm he will fly to Moscow.
As US-imposed sanctions and some Russian banks are being removed from the SWIFT messaging system, Lavrov will consider the rupee-ruble-denominated payment method for crude petroleum that Russia has proposed to India. New Delhi is not against buying Russian oil at a discounted rate.
It is also expressed that senior RBI officials are meeting their Russian partners to talk about rupee-ruble payments.
read also, Russian forces continued to bomb the areas around Kyiv, where Moscow had promised to scale back.
Why is the visit of the Foreign Minister of Russia important?
The visit is seen as an important engagement with India as it continues amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
India stayed away from UN General Assembly resolutions, which strongly condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. India continues to buy Russian oil and other goods despite pressure from Washington. US President Joe Biden last week described India as “somewhat unstable” on Russia.
Lavrov’s visit to India comes at a time when US Deputy National Security Advisor Dalip Singh and British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss are also visiting the country. German Foreign and Security Policy Adviser Jens Plotner is visiting India on Wednesday.
Lavrov’s visit is likely to focus on procuring discounted Russian crude and putting in place a “rupee-ruble payment system for bilateral trade” on the back of West-imposed sanctions against Moscow.
According to a Bloomberg report, Russian central bank officials are likely to visit India next week to discuss the details of the payment system. India may also emphasize the issue of “timely delivery of various military hardware” and “components of the S-400 missile system by Russia”.
According to the ANI report, Lavrov is currently holding multinational meetings in Tunxi, China. The Russian Foreign Minister is also holding multinational talks on Afghanistan with representatives of Pakistan, Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The Russian Foreign Minister held a meeting with representatives of China and Pakistan on Wednesday.
Lavrov said during a conversation with his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi, “Those who tried to make Afghanistan the center of world politics are now trying to create Ukraine to replace Afghanistan. And we all understand that this is the case.” What.”
The leaders are also going to attend a separate meeting of the “Extended Troika” with special Afghan envoys from China and the US.