Speculations about the alleged cancellation of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the end of this year are not true, because no such negotiations had been on the timetable, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Monday.
"Until the end of the year no meetings [between Putin and Modi] were planned. No one has canceled anything, because there were no such plans," Peskov said following media rumors that Modi had refused to meet with Putin at the end of this year.
Peskov said that "next year’s schedule [of contacts] will be coordinated."
Earlier, Bloomberg claimed, citing a reliable high-ranking official, that Modi had allegedly refused to hold an annual meeting with the Russian president this year.
In accordance with the strategic partnership declaration of 2000, the leaders of Russia and India meet annually, but in 2020, the summit could not be held due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Putin paid a visit to New Delhi in December 2021. This year, Putin and Modi held a separate meeting on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Samarkand in September.
