Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in a first-ever “informal summit” between the two countries in Sochi on 21 May, as reported by Economic Times. This “informal summit” as described in a DNA report, in a “new type of diplomacy to promote India’s strategic interests”.
The idea of this meeting as described by media report came up when Modi and Putin had a phone call on 18 April, their third this year.
This informal summit is scheduled to last for about five hours and be dominated by one-on-one meetings between Modi and Putin. As per the prescribed itinerary, PM Modi after arriving in Sochi will have a one-on-one interaction with Putin until lunchtime, following which they would engage in another similar discussion. Besides the solo interactions, the summit might also see a restricted delegation level meeting.
One aspect of the informal summit is that it is not supposed to cater to any specific agenda and would also see the dismissal of the regular protocol. Despite this, the issues to be discussed are speculated to include the cooperation between the countries over BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).
As claimed in the DNA report, this Indo-Russian meet would also give the countries a chance to arrest a recent downturn in their diplomatic relations.
Apart from “Informal Summits”, India is also embarking on offbeat diplomatic ties, which was witnessed in form of Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs V K Singh, becoming the first Indian Minister to visit North Korea in 20 years.
One of the major breakthroughs noted during the DPRK visit was the hermit nation’s assurance that it would, “never allow any action that would create concerns for India’s security”, as reported in an MEA statement.