Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin exchange a handshake during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit
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In a bilateral meeting on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin talked about bolstering cooperation across trade, defence, energy, and critical minerals. Aiming to hit $100 billion in bilateral trade by 2030, India pressed for expanded exports to Russia to narrow its growing trade deficit.The talks took place amid deepening geopolitical tensions, with continued conflict in West Asia and Ukraine and looming uncertainty over US trade and tariff policies.“Delighted to meet President Putin in Delhi, less than two weeks after our meeting in Bishkek. During today’s meeting, we talked about closer trade ties, including the implementation of the programme for economic cooperation 2030 and cooperation in areas like infrastructure, energy, technology, defence, culture and more,” Modi said on X following the meeting.The meeting took place ahead of the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi, which will be officially inaugurated on Saturday.“The two leaders reviewed progress in bilateral cooperation in political, economic, defence, energy, space, skill mobility and people-to-people domains,” according to a joint statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Russian Embassy in India.PM’s agendaBroadening India’s access to the Russian market was high on the Indian PM’s agenda as New Delhi looks to narrow a trade deficit of roughly $50 billion, with Russian exports to India at about $55 billion against imports of less than $5 billion, a source pointed out.“India wants to bring down the widening trade imbalance by increasing exports of pharmaceuticals, agricultural and food products, engineering goods and other manufactured products and wants Moscow to reduce both tariff and non-tariff barriers,” an official noted.Other areas of priority to India included cooperation in critical minerals, civil nuclear cooperation, including fuel cycle and life cycle support, cooperation in mobility and increasing Indian skilled labour to Russia and sustaining and increasing cooperation in fertilisers, through strategic JV projects, the source added.Key pillarDefence remains a key pillar of the relationship, with Russia keen to deepen defence ties through the potential acquisition and local production of Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jets, as well as upgrades to the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile system, as implied by Russian officials earlier.The $100-billion trade target by 2030 was among the key points for discussion. India is also looking to expand industrial cooperation through Russia’s first INNOPROM India exhibition, including collaboration in railways and tunnelling, development of the steel value chain and more business-to-business opportunities.The leaders also exchanged views on regional and global developments, including conflicts in West Asia and the Black Sea region. The Indian statement said these conflicts “have impacted maritime trade and the safety and security of Indian seafarers.”“The Prime Minister once again reiterated that dialogue and diplomacy were the way forward in resolving conflicts and India stood ready to assist in peace efforts,” the MEA said.Published on September 11, 2026
