PM Modi will be in Moscow from July 8 to 9 at President Putin's invitation for the 22nd India-Russia Annual Summit. This will be Modi's first trip to Russia since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022. On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will begin a two-day trip to Moscow for summit-level meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

The two leaders will examine the whole range of bilateral relations and exchange perspectives on current regional and global problems of mutual interest, the Ministry of External Affairs announced in New Delhi on Thursday. This will be Prime Minister Modi's first visit to Russia in over five years. His most recent visit to Russia was in 2019 for an economic conference in Vladivostok, Far East. The last time Modi and Putin met in person was in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on the outskirts of the SCO Summit in September 2022. 

That's when Modi warned Putin that "this is not the era of war" - a term used at the G20 meeting in Bali in November 2022, as well as by other Western leaders and interlocutors, to pressure Russia to cease the war. India has yet to denounce Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, reflecting its close friendship with Russia, and has maintained that the situation must be addressed by diplomacy and negotiation.

Modi and Putin have spoken on the phone at least ten times in the two and a half years since their last annual meeting in New Delhi in December 2021.  Modi's visit to Russia follows his outreach session at the G7 leaders' summit in Italy on June 13 and 14.  However, he did not attend the Ukraine peace summit, which was hosted in Switzerland. Following his visit to Russia, PM Modi will be in Austria from July 9 to 10. This will be the first visit to Austria by an Indian Prime Minister in 41 years, following Indira Gandhi's in 1983.