Phone calls and bilaterals: How Putin and Modi have engaged in the last 2 years

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s India trip begins today.

Putin is making his first trip to India since the outbreak of the Ukraine war in 2022. He previously visited India in 2021, just a few months before the war began. However, this has not stopped Putin and Modi from continuing to engage with each other over the past two years.

Since Modi came to power in 2014, the two men have shared a warm personal equation, which has propelled decades-old ties forward. But how have the two men engaged over the past two years?

Let’s take a closer look.

Meet at Tianjin

The previous meeting between the two men came on the sidelines of the 25th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit. The two-day meeting was held in China’s Tianjin on August 31 and September 1. It was the biggest such gathering of heads of state, with two dozen leaders including Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif, Nepal’s Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, among others, in attendance.

Modi and Putin shared a warm hug prior to their bilateral and were seen walking hand in hand. The two leaders discussed the Ukraine war, with Modi saying he hailed “all the efforts to achieve peace." Modi and Putin also shared a car ride to the hotel in Tianjin. The one-on-one discussion, which lasted around 50 minutes, began while travelling in Putin’s Aurus car to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel where he was staying, and continued in Putin’s hotel room.

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“After the proceedings at the SCO Summit venue, President Putin and I travelled together to the venue of our bilateral meeting. Conversations with him are always insightful,” Modi wrote on X.

Sources said that Putin wanted Modi along for the ride and waited nearly 10 minutes for the Prime Minister to join him. The two leaders, in the aftermath of their meeting, reasserted the “special and privileged strategic partnership” between India and Russia.

Modi “reiterated his support for the recent initiatives that have been taken to address the conflict in Ukraine, and emphasised the need to expedite a cessation of the conflict, and find a durable peace settlement,” a statement from the MEA read.

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“1.4 billion people eagerly await you,” Modi told the Russian President ahead of his trip.

But perhaps the most striking visual out of the meeting was witnessing Modi, Putin and Xi huddled together. The three leaders seemingly had a warm exchange with handshakes and pleasant conversation. What made it gain even more significance is that all three, to some extent at the time, were facing issues with Trump. In the aftermath of the summit, buzz seemed to be growing about reviving the dormant Russia-China-India (RIC), which last held its meeting in 2018.

Modi’s visit to Russia

Prime Minister Narendra Modi previously visited Russia in 2024 as part of the 22nd India-Russia Summit in Moscow. The two-day visit on July 8 and July 9, 2024, was his first trip to Russia since the beginning of the Ukraine war. It came just a month after Modi returned to power and was his first foreign visit since the beginning of his third term. Before that, Modi travelled to Russia’s Vladivostok in 2019 while attending an economic conference. Modi also travelled to Moscow in 2015, a year after first taking office as Prime Minister.

Modi, prior to his departure, had said he was “looking forward to reviewing all aspects of bilateral cooperation with my friend President Vladimir Putin and sharing perspectives on various regional and global issues. We seek to play a supportive role for a peaceful and stable region. The visit will also provide me an opportunity to meet the vibrant Indian community in Russia.” The Kremlin, meanwhile, said the trip would build on “traditionally friendly Russian-Indian relations.”

The MEA had said Modi would review bilateral relations and talk about contemporary regional and global issues of mutual interest. Modi was given the guard of honour while landing in Moscow and received at the airport by Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov. The Ostankino TV tower, a prominent landmark in Moscow and Europe’s tallest structure, was also aglow in the colours of the Indian and Russian national flags in honour of Modi’s trip.

Modi had a private engagement at Putin’s official residence at Novo-Ogaryovo where they drank tea on a terrace, rode in a golf cart, visited stables and shared dinner. Modi told Putin it was a “moment of joy” and thanked him for the “chit-chat here this evening”.

Putin also congratulated Modi for winning a third term as Prime Minister. “This is not an accident, but the result of your work over many years. You have your own ideas. You are a very energetic person, able to achieve results in the interests of India and the Indian people,” Putin was quoted as saying. He added that “the result is obvious” and that “India firmly ranks as the world’s third-largest economy.”

Modi and Putin then held formal talks on the second day of his visit. The leaders visited the Atom Pavilion at the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy. “Energy is an important pillar of cooperation between India and Russia and we are eager to further cement ties in this sector,” Modi wrote on social media.

Modi also visited the ‘Tomb of the Unknown Soldier’ in Moscow and laid a wreath at the memorial dedicated to the Soviet soldiers who lost their lives during World War II. Modi also met members of the Indian community during his trip.

Phone calls galore in 2025 and 2024

The interactions between the two men have not been limited to personal engagements. The two men have also spoken repeatedly over the phone in the past two years. In September, Putin and Modi had a telephone conversation on the Russian President’s 75th birthday, according to the Kremlin. The Prime Minister during the phone call reaffirmed the special and privileged strategic partnership.

“Spoke with my friend President Putin and conveyed warm birthday greetings and best wishes for his good health and long life. Deeply appreciate his personal commitment to deepening India-Russia ties over the years,” Modi wrote on X. Putin and Modi also spoke on August 18 in the aftermath of the Alaska Summit with Trump. During the call, Putin reportedly shared insights about how the meeting with Trump went. “Thank my friend, President Putin, for his phone call and for sharing insights on his recent meeting with President Trump in Alaska,” Modi later wrote on X.

Modi and Putin also shared a similar phone call on August 8, wherein the Russian President briefed the Prime Minister on the latest developments concerning Ukraine. Modi, thanking Putin for his detailed assessment, reiterated India’s consistent position for peaceful resolution of the conflict. The two leaders also reviewed progress in the bilateral agenda and reaffirmed their commitment to further deepen the Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership between India and Russia.

The two men also reportedly shared five phone calls in 2024, according to media reports. This included in March 2024 when Modi rang up Putin after his re-election to the post of Russian President. The two men discussed a number of issues including bilateral cooperation in trade, economy, energy, transport, investment and other sectors and spoke of the war in Ukraine.

In August 2024, the two leaders held a call in which Modi reiterated India’s support for an early and peaceful resolution to the war in Ukraine. Modi, during the call with Putin, which came days after he held talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, said he backed an early, peaceful resolution to the Ukraine conflict.

“Reiterated India’s firm commitment to support an early, abiding and peaceful resolution of the conflict,” Modi wrote on X. The Foreign Ministry said Modi shared “insights” from his visit to Ukraine with Putin and “underlined the importance of dialogue and diplomacy as well as sincere and practical engagement between all stakeholders” to find peace.

With inputs from agencies