Pressure on PM Modi harms global ties, says Putin; sees India-Russia trade touching $100 bn

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday strongly defended Prime Minister Narendra Modi against external pressure over India’s ties with Moscow, saying attempts to influence New Delhi’s decisions were harmful to both bilateral and international relations.

The remarks came as Putin also expressed confidence that India and Russia could raise bilateral trade to $100 billion in the coming years, underlining the growing economic partnership between the two countries despite geopolitical headwinds.

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Responding to a question during an interaction with representatives of international news agencies on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Putin rejected suggestions that India’s expanding engagement with the United States was creating problems in New Delhi’s relationship with Moscow.

“Everyone has understood that putting pressure on India’s PM Narendra Modi, a country that has the largest population in the world, is detrimental for international relations and for bilateral relations,” Putin said, according to the Kremlin.

He said Russia welcomed India’s growing engagement with countries across the world and viewed New Delhi’s foreign policy choices as a reflection of its national interests.

“India is a great country, with 1.5 billion people, a large economy and the world’s largest democracy. It is natural that India develops relations with countries it considers necessary for its own development,” Putin said.

Putin dismisses concerns over India-US ties

During the interaction, Putin described the premise that closer India-US cooperation could undermine India-Russia relations as misplaced.

He said Moscow did not see India’s partnerships with other nations as a threat to its longstanding relationship with New Delhi and remained supportive of India’s efforts to strengthen ties globally.

The Russian President, however, noted that some countries had attempted to exert pressure on India over its cooperation with Russia in certain sectors.

Without naming any specific country, he said such approaches had proved counterproductive.

Russia confident of reaching $100 billion trade target

Speaking separately at the economic forum, Putin said bilateral trade between India and Russia had the potential to cross the $100 billion mark in the coming years.

“We hope that in the upcoming years we will reach 100 billion US dollars in mutual trade. It is about 58 or 60 billion US dollars now, but we have all the foundations to work more actively and achieve more ambitious goals,” he said.

The Russian leader highlighted energy cooperation as one of the strongest pillars of the relationship and pointed to ongoing collaboration in both conventional and nuclear energy sectors.

Referring to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant project, Putin said the two countries would continue working together on major strategic initiatives, including hydrocarbons and investment projects.

“We are not only talking about our plans in energy, including nuclear energy. Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant is now being constructed. New platforms will emerge in terms of hydrocarbons. We will be continuing to work together,” he said.

Bilateral ties continue to deepen

India and Russia have maintained a close strategic partnership spanning defence, energy, trade, science and technology, and people-to-people exchanges.

According to official data, bilateral trade reached a record $68.7 billion in FY2024-25, driven largely by India’s imports of crude oil, petroleum products, fertilisers and other commodities from Russia.

The two countries have also set a target of achieving $50 billion in mutual investments while exploring avenues for deeper economic integration, including discussions on a proposed India-Eurasian Economic Union Free Trade Agreement.

In December last year, Putin travelled to New Delhi for a two-day state visit and held talks with Prime Minister Modi on defence, energy, trade and regional issues. The visit marked 25 years of the India-Russia strategic partnership.