The Foreign Ministry called the message about the refusal of the Prime Minister of India to come to Russia a misunderstanding

In Moscow, reports of the refusal of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Russia are considered a misunderstanding, since such a visit was not originally planned, said Andrei Rudenko, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation. write “RIA News”.

“I think there is some misunderstanding here. As Dmitry Peskov (Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation) said, this year the visit of the Prime Minister was not planned, ”Rudenko said.

Earlier, on December 9, Bloomberg, citing sources reportedthat Modi allegedly refused the annual meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin because of the situation around Ukraine.

At the same time, on December 12, the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov declaredthat the meeting between Putin and Modi was not planned until the end of this year.

“Until the end of the year, in fact, no meetings were planned. There, as far as I understand, it appeared … until the end of the year, and no one refused anything, because there were no planned contacts. Next year, the schedule will be coordinated,” the Kremlin representative answered a question on this topic.

According to the declaration on strategic partnership between Russia and India of 2000, the leaders of the two countries hold meetings annually. In 2020 meeting did not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2021 the Russian President visited New Delhi. This year, Putin and Modi last met in Samarkand in September. Then, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, they held bilateral meeting.