Putin to visit India December 24 for annual summit

New Delhi: Russian President Vladimir Putin is paying an official visit to New Delhi on December 24 for the 13th annual bilateral summit, during which the two countries are expected to ink a host of important bilateral agreements.

Putin, who took over as president for the third time in May this year, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are expected to review the entire gamut of India-Russia bilateral relations and also lay down a broad agenda to be followed for the coming year, said an external affairs ministry statement in New Delhi on Saturday.

This is the 13th annual summit between the two countries, a mechanism set up in 2000, which has since witnessed steady growth in bilateral relations in the political, strategic and economic spheres. This year is being celebrated as the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Putin as president earlier came for summit meetings in 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2007. He had last visited India in March 2010 as prime minister of Russia on a working visit. Manmohan Singh visited Moscow in December 2011 for the 12th annual summit.

The 13th summit will mark the culmination of a series of high level exchanges between the two countries during the year.

Then president Dmitry Medvedev visited New Delhi in March 2012 for the 4th BRICS Summit. Then external affairs minister S.M. Krishna visited Moscow in April 2012 on the eve of the 65th anniversary celebrations and also attended the 11th Russia-India-China Trilateral Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the statement said.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin visited New Delhi in July 2012 and in October 2012, the latter occasion for the 18th India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission meeting. The 12th Defence Minister-level Inter-Governmental Commission on Military and Technical Cooperation was held in New Delhi in October 2012.

India and Russia share a multi-dimensional strategic partnership which spans traditional strategic sectors like defence, nuclear and energy and is increasingly being augmented by cooperation in the areas of trade and investment, science and technology, culture and tourism and people-to-people contacts.

The countries also share close political coordination on various regional and international issues at major global forums.