Russia Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin on Wednesday called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to India.
Prime Minister Modi emphasised that India attaches a very high importance to special strategic partnership that New Delhi shares with Moscow. He also stated that he is looking forward Russia President Vladimir Putin's visit to India in December this year, adding that the visit would provide an opportunity to take the bilateral relations between the two nations to a new level.
Deputy Prime Minister Rogozin is participating in the 20th round of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission meeting, which is being co-chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
Relations with Russia are a key pillar of India's foreign policy and Russia has been a longstanding time-tested partner of India. Under the strategic partnership, several institutionalized dialogue mechanisms operate at both political and official levels to ensure regular interaction and follow up on cooperation activities. During the visit of President Putin to India in December 2010, the strategic partnership was elevated to the level of a 'special and privileged strategic partnership'.