00:00Look at the two sides, the delegates, those who are accompanying Prime Minister Modi and accompanying leaders, accompanying President Putin.
00:09Here it is, Dr. S. Jai Shankar, External Affairs Minister, P.K. Mishra, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Ajit
00:17Doval, National Security Advisor.
00:18Those are the first set of visuals coming in, first on India today.
00:22On this side, okay, so let's look at those visuals as it plays, that's Shakti Khan Das also, you know,
00:29who is in the Prime Minister's office, that is also a visual coming in.
00:34As that meeting begins, there is that warm handshake and also a hug.
00:39And then the bilateral is going to begin, the two leaders actually doing that photo opportunity for the cameras, which
00:49are all inside.
00:51That's Vikram Misri as well, who is the Foreign Affairs Secretary, senior officials, secretaries of the government of India.
01:01On the other hand, on the other side, we are seeing senior ministers from President Putin's cabinet also with him.
01:12Hadid, look at these visuals.
01:19Well, it's, you know, that hug tells it all, Maria, that very warm hug between Prime Minister Modi and President
01:25Putin.
01:26You know, the India-Russia relationship is not a relationship merely of two countries, especially a strategic partnership that they
01:33share.
01:33It is also a lot about the chemistry between these two leaders, Prime Minister Modi and President Putin.
01:39Both of them have met nearly 18 times over the course of Prime Minister Modi's tenure as Prime Minister of
01:46India.
01:46They share an extraordinarily warm relationship.
01:50And I can say that this is the kind of relationship Prime Minister Modi does not have with any world
01:55leader, the kind that he enjoys with President Putin.
01:58You can see that in that warm hug, that shake, those smiles, they come from the heart, Maria.
02:04You know, it is not a put on, it is exactly, the Prime Minister means, you know, he's putting his
02:10emotions on full display there with President Putin.
02:13It is an extraordinarily warm relationship that we share with Russia.
02:17Now, the challenge is to take this relationship to the next level.
02:22A hundred billion dollars in bilateral trade, yes, but India also needs to enter the Russian market.
02:28You cannot be importing more from Russia and exporting less because what India exports to Russia is paltry.
02:35It's not even ten billion dollars.
02:37So, you don't want to run up on, you know, a huge deficit with another country.
02:41We have a massive trade deficit with China.
02:43We don't want to have the same with Russia.
02:46So, I think both leaders are going to be looking at, apart from the usual agenda items, which is, you
02:52know, defense, energy,
02:54it is going to be looking at ways to balance this huge trade deficit that India and Russia currently face,
03:02Maria.
03:02And it's interesting that you highlight that in the last 12 years of Prime Minister Modi, the two leaders have
03:08met 18 times.
03:10And with every meeting, the emphasis has been about strengthening ties, at the same time sending a message that this
03:18is a relationship which is rooted in long history and it has to be taken forward.
03:24President Putin has great admiration for Prime Minister Modi when he spoke to Gita Mohan on two occasions in the
03:34last one year.
03:35Every time it was about great praise of how strong leadership is necessary for a country as big as India.
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