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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow

enzo2go — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 01:43:23 +0000

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday, his first visit to the Kremlin because the invasion of Ukraine.

Their meeting is critical as it’s the Indian prime minister's first bilateral trip abroad since he was re-elected to a rare third term in June.

The two heads of state wish to strengthen the event of the “traditionally friendly relations between Russia and India” and discuss “topical issues on the international and regional agenda”. The Kremlin said last week.

The meeting will provide a possibility for either side to debate a spread of bilateral issues, from defence and trade to investment relations and energy cooperation, said India's Foreign Minister Vinay Kwatra. in a press conference on Friday.

On the agenda

Russia and India may also assess the status of bilateral commitments in groupings comparable to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Group of 20, the BRICS bloc of developing countries, the United Nations and the East Asia Summit, Kwatra said.

“The issue of early release of Indian citizens lured into service in the Russian army is also expected to be a subject of discussion,” Kwatra added.

Since March, India has been demanding the discharge of Russian residents who were allegedly “duped” into serving within the Russian army. The South Asian country had previously uncovered a “large human trafficking network”.

Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered a series of sanctions from the G7 and other countries as world leaders sought to stop or limit Moscow's ability to finance the war. The Kremlin insisted on calling the invasion a “special military operation.”

India has shunned openly criticizing Putin, but has maintained a neutral stance towards Russia's invasion of Ukraineand called on either side to finish the war. New Delhi, nevertheless, condemned the killing of civilians in the beginning of the Ukraine conflict, but didn’t blame Russia.

Modi’s visit to the Kremlin comes immediately after his Meeting with the Heads of State and Government of the G7 in Italy last month, where the bloc of industrialized nations – comprising the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom – agreed to finance Ukraine's war against Russia with profits from frozen Kremlin assets.

The historical ties between India and Russia

India and Russia have a long-term security cooperation partnership Since the Cold War, New Delhi's armed forces have been highly depending on Moscow's military equipment.

Modi's last visit to Russia was in 2019, when he visited the Far Eastern port city of Vladivostok as a part of an economic forum. The two last met in person in 2022 on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan, where Modi told the Russian president that this was not an era of war, but stopped wanting condemning his actions in Ukraine.

Like the United States, Russia has its own place in India's foreign policy. said former Indian Foreign Minister Kanwal Sibal in a recent post on the social media platform X.

“Neither India nor the global South see Putin as an international pariah,” added the previous ambassador to Russia.

India's bilateral trade with Russia increased by 33% within the fiscal yr ending March 2024. reached a historic high of 65.7 billion US dollarsHowever, an imbalance in trade still exists, Kwatra stressed.

According to official data, India's exports to Russia amounted to $4.26 billion, while imports from the Kremlin amounted to just about $61.44 billion.

After his two-day visit to Russia, Modi will travel to Vienna, Austria on Tuesday. It could be the primary visit by an Indian prime minister in 41 years.

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Polls show Narendra Modi is more likely to win a landslide victory

enzo2go — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 10:25:53 +0000

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party is ready to win a decisive majority in India's elections for the third consecutive time, several post-election polls showed, continuing Modi's decade-long tenure on the helm of the world's fastest-growing economy.

Polls have shown that his Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance will win many more seats than the 272 needed for a majority in India's 543-seat lower house. Official election results shall be released on June 4.

Modi declared the BJP-led alliance the winner based on exit poll results and said the ruling party's track record was well received by voters, especially the poor.

“I can say with confidence that the people of India have voted in record numbers to re-elect the NDA government,” he said in a post on social media platform X. He also criticized the opposition alliance's campaign for failing to offer a vision for the country.

The results are more likely to boost Indian financial markets, which have been volatile in recent weeks amid speculation that the BJP and its allies may not meet Modi's ambitious goal of winning 400 seats. In 2019, the BJP won 303 seats alone and around 351 with its allies.

Read more: India's popular, polarizing leader looks back on a millennial legacy

VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, predicted a recovery in markets on Monday and said exit polls had eased a few of the election jitters that had weighed on sentiment in May.

“This is a spur for the bulls, who will trigger a big rally in the market on Monday,” he said. Investors may even likely be encouraged by data released on Friday showing that the economy grew faster than expected at 8.2% within the fiscal yr ended March.

Although the outcomes of post-election polls in Indian elections are mixed, they’ve broadly appropriately predicted the outcomes of the 2019 and 2014 general elections.

Women line as much as forged their vote within the seventh and final phase of national elections in Varanasi, India, Saturday, June 1, 2024. Indians began voting on Saturday in the ultimate round of a six-week national election. (Rajesh Kumar Singh/Associated Press)

The polling results were released after the last of India's nearly one billion registered voters forged their ballots. The grueling election lasted six weeks and was spread over seven phases, starting on April 19.

The BJP's strategy of focusing its campaign on the hugely popular Modi appears to have paid off, if the polls are correct. Modi, the party's star campaigner, has been travelling everywhere in the country, holding roadshows and addressing large crowds. The party even titled its manifesto “Modi's Guarantee”.

A victory for Modi can be historic: since Jawaharlal Nehru, who ruled India for 17 years after independence, no prime minister has managed to stay in power for 3 consecutive terms.

Post-election polls showed the BJP making gains in southern India, where Modi campaigned heavily to win over voters traditionally skeptical of the ruling party's Hindu nationalist policies. The polls also showed the BJP retaining much of its monopoly power within the northern Hindi-speaking states.

The victory also signals additional difficulties for the country's opposition, particularly the Indian National Congress, the biggest party within the opposition alliance. The failure of an try to weaken the BJP's mandate in a 3rd consecutive national election could fuel fears that the Congress party needs an ideological restructuring or a change in leadership.

A serious victory for the ruling party would open the door to pushing through decisive recent policies and further boost Modi's global standing. The BJP promised in its election manifesto to take a position more in infrastructure, boost manufacturing and proceed its popular social programs.

If the BJP-led alliance wins two-thirds of the seats, 363, within the lower house of Parliament – as some polls have predicted – the party may even be a step closer to changing the structure. Most changes would require a two-thirds majority in each the upper and lower houses of Parliament. The BJP-led alliance currently has about 50 percent of the seats within the upper house.

During the election campaign, opposition parties warned voters that the BJP government would use its two-thirds majority to weaken the policy of positive discrimination against people from lower castes. BJP officials have repeatedly denied these allegations.

With support from Ruchi Bhatia, Preeti Soni, Anup Roy and Sudhi Ranjan Sen.

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