New Delhi: The bonhomie between Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi has fostered a robust strategic partnership between Russia and India. The leaders have met 19 times in the past 11 years, outlining a strong diplomatic relationship and expanding cooperation amid a shifting geopolitical landscape.
While the Ukraine war has isolated Putin from the West, India has maintained a balancing act between Donald Trump and Putin. Despite the US President putting pressure on India to stop importing Russian crude oil, Modi has maintained India’s “strategic autonomy”. Putin’s visit to India now cements that.
Here is a look at past Modi-Putin special moments, as New Delhi prepares to host Putin for the 23rd India-Russia annual summit Thursday.
‘Special chemistry’
At Russia’s annual Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in 2020, Modi told Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper, “Our relationship has special chemistry, special ease. With each meeting with President Putin, we get closer, and our relationship grows.”
Highlighting that the India-Russia relationship extended beyond the leaders’ interpersonal equation, Modi said that every year, “Siberian cranes migrate to my home state, Gujarat”, while planning talks on tiger conservation with Putin, who is known to bond with the big cats.
‘True patriot’
In October 2022, Putin called Modi a “true patriot of his country” during a plenary session of the Valdai International Discussion Club, a Moscow-based think-tank.
Commenting on India’s decision not to align with any bloc following the Russia-Ukraine conflict, he praised Modi, saying, “PM Modi is one of those individuals in the world able to pursue an independent foreign policy in the interest of his country, and his people, [entertaining] no attempts to stop him.”
Words of advice
Founded on mutual understanding, the Modi-Putin friendship also enters the territory of sharing frank advice—for instance, at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in September 2022. “Today’s era is not an era of war,” Modi told Putin at the summit, emphasising the need for dialogue, diplomacy, and democracy in the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.
Putin told Modi that he understood India’s concerns, adding that Moscow would do everything to stop the war soon, but Ukraine wasn’t allowing it.
Highest civilian honour
Order of St. Andrew the Apostle—the highest honour for chivalry that Russia has bestowed on distinguished personalities across various fields—was conferred on Modi. In 2024, Putin awarded the Order to PM Modi, recognising his “exceptional” contributions to advancing the Russia-India strategic partnership.
“It is a testimony to Russia’s sincere gratitude to the sincere contribution you are making to strengthening friendship and mutual understanding between our nations…you have always advocated broader contacts with our country,” President Putin said, conferring the award and talking about the time Modi, as chief minister, had come up with the initiative to make the state of Gujarat “twin” with the Russian region.
Tea at Putin’s home
On his first state visit to Russia after he seized power for his third term in 2024, Modi was hosted by Putin at his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo.
In a show of camaraderie beyond their relationship as leaders of their nations, the two friends shared tea before riding out of Putin’s palatial mansion in a golf buggy to visit the stables on the premises.
A huddle
During the 2025 summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), photos emerged of PM Modi and President Putin with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping, showing the three in a warm huddle. As President Xi welcomed his counterparts, the trio was seen engaging in a long chat, shaking hands, and laughing.
In the backdrop of this affable show stood the lone, awkward figure of Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, captured in visuals when all the leaders lined up for their photos, triggering a thousand memes.
‘Limo’ ride
Following the SCO summit, Putin waited for ten whole minutes outside the conference venue, so that Modi could accompany him in his presidential car to the venue of their bilateral meeting, making headlines.
Their conversation in Putin’s Aurus Senat, a limousine-category car, also drew a lot of attention, as the two leaders stayed in the car for roughly 45 minutes after they reached the venue. Putin later shared the details of the tête-à-tête, saying the duo discussed his conversation with Trump in Alaska earlier that year.
Sharing a photo of the ride on X, PM Modi called his talk with Putin “insightful”.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)