Modi true patriot, can pursue independent foreign policy: Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday praised India's "independent" foreign policy and called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a true patriot. Putin was speaking at the Plenary Session of the 19th Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club in Moscow, where he said India has progressed a lot under Modi's leadership. He said India has a great future and an increasing role in geopolitics.
Why does this story matter?
This comes weeks after India abstained from voting on a resolution by United Nations (UN) to condemn Russia annexing the four Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia after seven months of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. The West is pressurizing India to denounce Russia and cut diplomatic and economic ties with the former Soviet state, in an attempt to align India with itself.
India has made great progress under Modi: Putin
Putin hailed the Make in India initiative as a "significant effort." He said India had come a long way from being a former British colony to being a modern country. Mentioning that India has close to 1.5 billion people, he said India is the largest democracy "in a good sense of the word" and it should be proud of its growth rate.
Delhi and Moscow have decades of close ties: Putin
Fertilizer supplies to India increased 7.6 times
He said India and Russia have been close allies for decades and never had any "outstanding issues." He expressed hope that the relations between both countries will remain cordial in the future as well. He said the economic cooperation between Delhi and Moscow was also growing, stating that PM Modi asked him to increase fertilizer supplies, following which they were raised 7.6 times.
Modi one of those individuals: Putin
Putin termed PM Modi as one of those individuals who could adhere to an independent foreign policy in the country's interest "without any attempts to stop him." PM Modi had met Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, and told him that this wasn't an era of war, which India's permanent representative to the UN had reiterated.
