Vladimir Putin gifted Narendra Modi a few pieces of Indian history

According to the press release of External Affairs Ministry of India, “At the invitation of President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of India will pay his first official bilateral visit to Moscow from 23-24 December 2015 for the 16th India-Russia Annual Summit”.

“For example, the project for joint production of Kamov Ka-226 helicopter – I hope to use my visit to have it inked on paper when the prime minister arrives”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talks expected to focus on defense, nuclear and space cooperation. While Abhinandan will portray the assimilation of India’s performing arts traditions by Russian artistes, Abhivyakti will be an attempt to articulate and convey an authentic image of Indian traditions, history and culture by Russian artistes.

Russian Federation is keen to develop and deepen its Soviet-era economic ties with India and sell new technologies to one of the world’s fastest-growing economies at a time its own economy is stagnant, hit by Western sanctions and a plunge in global oil prices. The summit started on Thursday with a private dinner hosted by Putin in the Kremlin following which Russian Federation and India inked 15 agreements.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India has succeeded in convincing the world that there was a need to unite against terrorism and the menace can be easily fought if all powers having faith in humanity come together.

The pace of our cooperation in nuclear energy is increasing.

The two leaders noted that India’s participation as a partner country in the International Industrial Exhibition INNOPROM 2016 and Russia’s involvement as a partner country in India Engineering Sourcing Show 2017 could spur a fresh wave of growth in the field of industry, scientific and technological innovations. Mr. Modi said Russian Federation had agreed to build a total of 12 over an unspecified timeframe.

Despite Russia’s simultaneous proximity to both China and Pakistan from a strategic angle, India has strengthened defense ties with its “reliable friend”, thus, indicating a change in the geopolitical scenario in Asia. Even the extremely modest target of $30 billion bilateral trade by 2025, set by Modi and Putin past year and up from the $9 billion at present, appears optimistic.

Among the other agreements signed were those related to railways, solar energy, heavy engineering and hydrocarbons.

Following the summit-level talks, Modi and Putin jointly addressed chief executives of Indian and Russian companies.

Earlier on Thursday, Modi visited Russia’s National Crisis Management Centre (NCMC), also known as EMERCOM, a multi-level coordination center created to provide inter-agency coordination and alert people about the threat of emergency situations.