New Delhi: Days after media reports claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi won't be holding an annual in-person meeting with Vladimir Putin after the Russian president threatened to use nuclear weapons in the ongoing war in Ukraine, Moscow said that the report is "misunderstanding". Bloomberg News reported last week that a decision to cancel a summit between the two leaders was taken after veiled threats by Putin to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war. A Russian official told Bloomberg that India's decision not to hold a summit was clear at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan, where Modi told Putin that this was "not an era of war".


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The Russian Foreign Ministry, however, said that the reports about the Indian PM refusing a meeting with the Russian President are a "misunderstanding", Reuters reported on Tuesday (December 13, 2022).


An Indian government source had also told Reuters that the decision not to hold the summit was taken much earlier and that the nuclear angle "was not a factor". 


Putin visited New Delhi in December last year for the 21st India–Russia annual summit, during which he extended an invitation to Prime Minister Modi to visit Russia for the 22nd India-Russia Annual Summit.



The annual summit between the Prime Minister of India and the Russian President is the highest institutionalized dialogue mechanism in the strategic partnership between the two nations.


Earlier in September this year, the two leaders met on the sidelines of a regional security bloc summit in Uzbekistan's Samarkand. This was the first meeting of both leaders this year, which marks the 75th anniversary year of the establishment of diplomatic relations. 



Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping to hold talks in late December


Meanwhile, Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping are scheduled to hold talks to discuss the events of 2022 in late December.


Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesman, said that the date and the agenda of the meeting are already known, but an official announcement will come later, Reuters reported.


It is notable that Russia has moved closer to China since sending its armed forces into Ukraine in February as Moscow seeks to boost its political, economic and security relations with non-Western countries.


(With agency inputs)