07 August,2025 09:49 PM IST | Moscow | mid-day online correspondent
NSA Ajit Doval on Thursday met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. File Pic/PTI
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Thursday met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, the Kremlin press service said.
Doval arrived in Russia on Wednesday to hold crucial talks on bilateral energy and defence ties and to prepare the ground for President Vladimir Putin's visit to India later this year.
A video clip shared by the Kremlin press service on X showed Ajit Doval shaking hands with Putin before holding the talks.
His visit commenced on a day when US President Donald Trump issued an executive order slapping an additional 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods as a penalty for buying Russian oil, doubling it to 50 per cent.
Earlier, Doval met Russian Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu.
"Russia is committed to further active cooperation with India to form a more just and sustainable world order and ensure the supremacy of international law," Sergey Shoigu said Thursday.
During his meeting with Doval, Shoigu said Russia and India are linked by "strong, time-tested ties of friendship."
"A multi-level trust-based political dialogue is effectively functioning between our countries now. It is based on regular contacts between President Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is important to determine the dates for the next full-scale negotiations between our leaders," he was quoted as saying by the state-run TASS news agency, reported the PTI.
Shoigu said that for Moscow, the most important thing is to comprehensively strengthen the special privileged strategic partnership with India, which is based on
"We are committed to further active cooperation to form a new, more just and sustainable world order, ensure the rule of international law and jointly combat modern challenges and threats," Shoigu said, according to the PTI.
Doval expressed hope that the summit meeting would provide new directions for the development of bilateral relations and produce a "tangible and substantial" result of the talks, TASS reported.
On November 19, 2024, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov had confirmed that Putin would visit India.
Meanwhile, "NSA Doval, during his visit to Moscow, has said that the dates for President Putin's visit to India are being worked out," sources told the PTI.
The time of end-August being reported in some media is incorrect, they said.
No specific date or time has been indicated by the NSA in his engagements, they said on Thursday.
(with PTI inputs)
