Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit India on December 6 for the 21st annual summit between the leaders of the two countries. The last time this summit was held was in 2019. It was not held last year due to the Covid pandemic. In their summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Putin are likely to touch upon a number of issues, with specific outcomes expected in expanding ties in the areas of defence, trade and energy, officials sources said.

A framework for military-technical cooperation is to be renewed for the next decade, and a joint commission on technology and science may be announced, news agency PTI reported last week, NDTV said. 

Simultaneously, India and Russia will also hold a 2+2 summit that will see the External Affairs and Defence ministers of each country meet their counterparts. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu will visit India for the first 2+2 meeting between the countries.

Lavrov and Shoigu will meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, respectively. Jaishankar and Singh were to travel to Moscow this month but that plan was changed because the winter session of Parliament begins from November 29.

A spokesperson from the Russian embassy in Delhi said the ministers were expected to hold "in-depth discussions on key regional and international issues, including the situation in the Asia-Pacific (Indo-Pacific) region and developments in Afghanistan and Syria". Russia avoids using the term Indo-Pacific, which they see as an American coinage. 

 The spokesperson also said the two sides were expected to exchange views on interaction within the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral.

India and Russia have also reached the final phase of negotiation for a logistics support agreement and it is likely to be signed either during the 2+2 talks or at the summit between Modi and Putin. The pact will allow militaries of the two countries to use each other's bases for repair and replenishment of supplies, besides facilitating scaling up of overall defence cooperation, PTI news agency said. (SAM)