00:00And Shanti, President Putin said that Russia is ready to supply uninterrupted fuel to India,
00:06and this comes despite objection from President Donald Trump. As you said there, he's hit India
00:13with heavy sanctions, accusing them of helping them fund the Kremlin war machine. How much of
00:20a tightrope is Modi walking as he tries to keep Russia and the US happy because he's also trying
00:27to reach a trade deal with the US. So it's a complicated situation for Modi himself.
00:32Yeah, it is. And at this point of time, I think India is involved in a balancing act.
00:38And whatever the trade-offs which will come from the trade agreement with Russia,
00:42hopefully will cascade with the deal with the US. And I mean, though President Putin has made this
00:48promise of providing oil, and India had been buying oil but has reduced because there is a certain
00:54bargain which is working with the US in the background. So I think it's a very delicate
00:59balancing act where India is trying to maintain its autonomy, but at the same time, strike a deal
01:06with both the US and Russia in a way that benefits Indian policymakers. And for Putin, who is basically
01:13seen as a pariah because of the Ukraine war, and who himself is trying to reach out to the US and
01:20strike a deal in its own form, I think it's been a win-win situation for both of them, in terms of the optics,
01:26in terms of the content, and the fact that they also had an informal dinner where they discussed a lot of other
01:32things, shows that I think the personalities and the optics behind this logic also leads to the fact that there is a
01:40US background which both the countries and the leaders are dealing with. So definitely for Prime Minister Modi, I think this has been a
01:47significant visit and achievement to show that India is involved in negotiations and is able to take position on issues in a changing world order.
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