Image source, EPA

Russian President Vladimir Putin has had a busy day in Delhi while visiting India's Narendra Modi.

He's due to fly back to Russia at 21:00 local time (15:30 GMT), but before it was wheels off, he announced that Moscow is ready to provide "uninterrupted shipments" of fuel to India. This comes even as Delhi is facing pressure from Trump to stop buying Russian oil.

Putin, speaking alongside the Indian PM in Delhi, questioned earlier why India should be punished for buying oil when the US itself buys nuclear fuel from Moscow.

The US has imposed 50% tariffs on most Indian products, arguing that Delhi's continued purchases of Russian oil helped fund the war in Ukraine - an accusation India denies.

Putin's visit comes as the US holds a series of talks with Russia and Ukraine in an attempt to broker a peace deal to end the war.

On Thursday, Putin told India Today that Russia was working on a "peaceful solution" to ending the war - warning that Ukraine must withdraw from the Donbas or Russia would seize it.

• What did Putin and Modi get out of this meeting? Our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg breaks it down
• Visas, trade and nuclear power: Our main news story outlines the many memorandums the two leaders exchanged, in areas including trade and agriculture

This page was brought to you from teams in Delhi, Mumbai and London, with inputs from Steve Rosenberg, Vikas Pandey, Cherylann Mollan, Nikhil Inamdar, Devina Gupta, Meryl Sebastian, Zoya Mateen, Nikita Yadav, Anahita Sachdev, Nikita Mandhani, Sharanya Hrishikesh, Abhishek Dey, Arunoday Mukharji, Nathan Williams, James Gregory, Dulcie Lee and Emily McGarvey. It was produced by Geeta Pandey in Delhi and edited by Soutik Biswas in London.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is reaching the end of his two-day trip to India in a few hours. He arrived on Thursday to a warm welcome from Prime Minister Modi.

On Friday, he had a packed schedule which included a trip to the Indian President's house as well as a bilateral meeting with Modi.

Here are some highlights from his trip, captured through photos:

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Surbhi Kaul
BBC Monitoring

Image source, RT India/X

President Putin has just launched RT India, a TV channel under the Kremlin-funded RT network.

"Russian international TV channel RT will be starting broadcasting in India and that will help India to know Russia better and understand what is happening right now in our country," Putin said in his statement earlier today.

The channel, one of Russia's main India facing news outlets, highlighted Putin's remarks, external in a post on X.

Image source, Getty Images

It was as early as in 1955 when Bollywood's then top star Raj Kapoor sang his way into the hearts of Russians with his famous song about his "Japanese shoes and red Russian hat".

So, it seemed like a hat tip from President Putin when in October, speaking at a Valdai Discussion Group meeting, he expressed his admiration for Indian cinema and said that it continued to enjoy a huge fan base in Russia.

The connection with Bollywood dates back to Soviet-era cultural diplomacy when films like Awaara and Disco Dancer became hugely popular across Russia and Bollywood stars like Kapoor and Mithun Chakraborty became household names.

Audiences connected with the rags-to-riches stories and battles between good and evil in these films.

Current stars like Shah Rukh Khan continue to be popular among Russians. In fact, Khan's film Pathan was released simultaneously in Russia and India.

Abhishek Dey
Reporting from Delhi

Besides trade and defence ties, India and Russia have also bonded over sport and culture.

Soviet cultural outreach is widely credited with helping to popularise organised chess in India.

In the 1970s, Soviet cultural centres supplied clubs with books, clocks, chess sets and magazines, and offered places for gatherings such as the Tal Chess Club, where lectures on Soviet chess theory were held.

Image source, Getty Images

Access to coaching material and regular tournaments helped players develop and fostered a competitive culture that eventually contributed to the rise of talents such as Viswanathan Anand.

The period coincided with Soviet dominance in world chess, when its grandmasters set training standards that shaped modern competition.

As India entered more international tournaments, its players competed in an environment long influenced by Soviet strategies, discipline and theory.

India now has one of the world’s fastest-expanding player bases, backed by a large pool of grandmasters and a deepening competitive structure.

Image source, Getty Images

Opposition politicians have criticised the government for not letting Rahul Gandhi, the leader of opposition in the parliament, meet Putin during this visit.

“This is deliberate and breaking a tradition followed by previous governments and prime ministers,” Congress party MP Rajiv Shukla told reporters on Friday, adding that the Gandhi family has had strong ties with Russia.

On Thursday, Gandhi had himself expressed displeasure and blamed the government’s “insecurity” for not following the tradition of allowing visiting foreign leaders to meet the opposition leader.

“The leader of opposition provides a second perspective. We also represent India but the government doesn’t want us to meet foreign dignitaries,” he said.

Harsh Vardhan Shringla, India’s former foreign secretary and an MP from the ruling BJP, said, “I don't think there is any protocol that requires the leader of the opposition to meet [visiting leaders].”

"These visits are time-constrained, and the guests have a very tight schedule,” he told NDTV news channel.

Image source, Getty Images

We had reported earlier that Putin mentioned nuclear energy in his interview to India Today TV channel.

In his statement after meeting with Modi, Putin reiterated that Russia was building India's largest nuclear power plant in Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu state.

"Two of six units are already connected to the grid and four are under construction," Putin said. "Once fully operational, it will make a major contribution to India’s clean and affordable energy needs."

"We are also exploring small modular reactors, floating nuclear plants and non-energy nuclear technologies in medicine and agriculture," he added.

In the interview, Putin had said Russia was probably the only country in the world today capable of building small nuclear power plants.

Earlier this year, India announced a target to produce 100GW of nuclear power by 2070, up more than 10-fold from its current capacity, with small modular reactors playing an important role in this expansion.

Image source, Getty Images

Modi and Putin are now participating in the India-Russia Business Forum in Delhi.

Putin is also expected to attend the official launch ceremony for the Indian newsroom of RT India - Russia's state media channel.

He will then meet Indian President Droupadi Murmu.

Before flying back home tonight, he will attend a state dinner hosted in his honour by President Murmu.

The India-Russia friendship has stood firm "like a pole star" throughout many crises facing humanity, Modi said during the joint briefing. Listen to a translated excerpt from his speech here:

President Vladimir Putin briefed the press about his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he was satisfied with the negotiations between the two countries.

We've been reporting on Russian President Vladimir Putin's two-day visit to India and here's what has happened so far...

• President Putin and Prime Minister Modi have just wrapped up their press conference in Delhi where they have outlined plans to boost trade and agriculture ties and improve people-to-people contacts
• Putin arrived in India on Thursday and was welcomed by Modi at the airport in Delhi, where they shared a warm hug and handshake
• On Friday morning, Putin received a 21-gun salute and a guard of honour at the Indian president's house and visited the Mahatma Gandhi memorial
• The two leaders spoke about Ukraine and peace - Modi repeated India's stance that it was not neutral on the war and stood on "the side of peace" while Putin said that Russia was working on a "peaceful solution to the Ukraine conflict"
• After their bilateral meeting, the leaders read out statements saying that India and Russia had agreed on an economic programme until 2030
• No mega defence deals were announced, but there were agreements signed on shipbuilding, investments in civil nuclear energy and critical minerals. Russia also said it would supply "uninturrupted" fuel to India
• Shortly before the meeting, Russian media reported the Kremlin saying that Moscow was waiting for a response from Washington following talks on a possible plan to end its war in Ukraine
• Putin's India visit comes against the backdrop of US efforts to broker peace - on Thursday, Putin warned again that Ukraine must withdraw from the Donbas region or Russia will seize it

Padmaja Venkataraman
BBC Monitoring

Chinese media have highlighted that Putin’s India visit is taking place amid tensions between Delhi and Washington, with Trump repeatedly calling on India to stop buying Russian oil.

Despite this pressure, India's need for crucial energy supplies has made it “difficult to sever energy cooperation with Russia”, according to, external experts cited by the official Xinhua News Agency.

Putin’s visit shows, external that the “two sides enjoy extensive mutual support and strong complementarity”, the Global Times newspaper quoted Li Haidong from China Foreign Affairs University as saying. Li believes that “sanctions and pressure from the US and the West" against Russia and India are "unlikely to succeed”.

Fudan University’s South Asia expert Lin Minwang said, external Putin's visit had significant “symbolic” meaning, with Russia having sought close, high-level engagement since 2022 even as Delhi kept interactions “low-key”.

“Russia has consistently served as a ‘strategic safety net’ in India’s foreign policy. However, given major shifts in the international landscape, how far India is willing to extend the Indo-Russian relationship remains highly uncertain,” Lin wrote in news and commentary website Guancha, which has close links with the Chinese Communist Party.

It's all about tradepublished at 10:07 GMT 5 December 2025

10:07 GMT 5 December 2025

Vikas Pandey
India editor

As the two leaders read out their statements, what stood out first was the conspicuous display of mutual respect. The second was the absence of any blockbuster announcement.

No mega deals for fighter jets or defence systems were announced by the leaders - both had been expected though.

But there were many other announcements, all targeted at boosting trade. Deals and memorandums have been signed in shipbuilding, training of Indian seafarers to operate in polar waters, investments in new shipping lanes, civil nuclear energy and critical minerals.

Putin said he was confident about keeping the current bilateral trade at more than $60bn and ramping it up to $100bn in the coming years.

This is interesting as the current trade volume relies heavily on India's purchase of discounted crude. But some Indian firms have already started reducing oil imports from Russia to comply with the recent US sanctions.

While they didn't talk about oil, it's clear from the announcement that a lot of thought has been given to boosting bilateral trade.

That is the need for both countries at the moment. Russia is reeling under Western sanctions and India is facing 50% tariffs from Washington.

Image source, Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi have just wrapped up their press conference in Delhi. They started by exchanging memorandums of understanding in areas like trade and agriculture - these are non-legal documents that outline mutual objectives and are seen as starting points to more formal contracts.

They didn't take questions, but this is what we heard in the statements given by the two leaders:

• Modi outlined plans to forge closer ties between the two countries. He said they'd opened two new Indian consulates in Russia and announced two new tourist visa schemes
• On the war in Ukraine, Modi said that India had "stood for peace since the beginning". He welcomed efforts to find a "lasting solution" and said that India was ready to "contribute in the future"
• On energy, Putin said that Russia was "ready to continue uninterrupted fuel shipments" to India, referencing a "flagship" nuclear plant being built in India that Russia will help with
• Russia Today (RT) will launch in India, which Putin said will help Indians learn more about his country through the broadcasting of "objective information"
• Putin said he and Modi were cooperating on foreign policy - including through their coalition of Brics countries - to promote a "more just" and "multi-polar" world

Putin says the launch of the India bureau of Russia Today's (RT) news network today will help Indians learn more about Russia by broadcasting "objective information" about what's happening in the country.

He talks about cooperating on foreign policy: Together with the other Brics countries, they are promoting a "more just" and "multi-polar" world, he says. Putin also talks about cooperation with India in the military sector.

Putin ends his remarks by saying the Russian delegation is pleased with the results of the negotiations, and agreements have been reached that will "deepen" the partnership between Russia and India.

• For context: Brics is an informal alliance of major developing countries and other nations. India, Russia and China and Brazil were the founding members of the group, which formed in 2006 broadly to challenge the political and economic power of North America and Western European nations.

President Putin now begins speaking, and starts by thanking India's president and prime minister for their "warm welcome".

He says that talks between the two leaders have been "constructive" and were held in a "friendly atmosphere".

He adds that the pair have a "close working dialogue" citing "regular" phone calls.

He turns then to the "impressive" package of agreements that have been signed during the trip which were demonstrated at the start of the conference, as he sets out an ambition to increase trade between the two countries.

Putin further points to, and welcomes, increased use of national currencies in trade.

On energy, he says Russia is ready to continue "uninterrupted shipments" of fuel to India. This is despite the fact that Delhi faces pressure from the US to stop buying oil from Moscow.

Putin also references a "flagship project" building India's largest nuclear power plant that they will help with.

Prime Minister Modi says he and Putin have discussed Ukraine, and that India has "stood for peace since the beginning".

India welcomes efforts to find a "peaceful and lasting solution" to the war in Ukraine, he adds, and says they're ready to "contribute in the future".

"India and Russia have long supported each other, and worked shoulder to shoulder in the fight against terrorism," he continues - mentioning various attacks, including the attack on Crocus City Hall in Moscow in 2024.

For context: Putin's visit to India comes as US President Donald Trump's administration holds a series of talks with Russia and Ukraine in an attempt to end the war.

Increasing the "connectivity" of Russia and India is a "major priority for us", says Modi.

Modi says that energy security has been a "strong and important pillar" of relations between the two countries - and references "decades" long cooperation in the field of nuclear energy, which he says has been "instrumental" in the two countries pursuing a "common commitment" to clean energy.

Modi talks about the "close bonds" forged between citizens of Russia and India, and says that to further these relationships, they've opened two new Indian consulates in Russia.

He adds that two new 30-day visa schemes will become available soon for Russian tourists in India.

Modi, speaking first, uses the Russian word for hello, and says he takes immense pleasure in welcoming Putin to the summit.

It comes at a time when relations between their two countries is marked by historic foundations, he says. Putin laid those foundation exactly 25 years ago today, Modi adds.

He says the pair have discussed all aspects of cooperation - with economic cooperation their priority - and the two leaders have reached an economic cooperation programme lasting until 2030, he announces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi are at their respective podiums ready to speak to the press in Delhi.

Before the leaders begin their addresses, a number of documents detailing memorandums of understanding are exchanged between various ministers from each country. There is applause at each exchange while Putin and Modi look on.