Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin travel in a car from Palam Airport in New Delhi on Thursday (December 4). Photo: X/@narendramodi
Delighted to welcome my friend Putin, says Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi received Russian President Vladimir Putin at New Delhi's Palam airport, hugging him and accorded him a warm welcome to India after a four-year gap
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday night (December 4) kick-started a nearly 27-hour visit to India to further shore up a nearly eight-decade bilateral partnership that remained on firm footing notwithstanding a fractious geopolitical environment and tensions.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi received Putin at New Delhi's Palam airport, hugging him and accorded him a warm welcome to India after a four-year gap. The two leaders left the airport in the same car, nearly three months after travelling together in a vehicle in the Chinese city of Tianjin after the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.
Private dinner planned
Modi is hosting a private dinner for Putin this evening, in a reciprocal gesture to the hospitality extended to the Indian prime minister by the Russian leader during his visit to Moscow in July last year.
During his two-day stay, Putin will meet President Droupadi Murmu and later attend a private dinner organised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to presidential aide Yury Ushakov, the two leaders will review a range of “promising projects” across industrial collaboration, innovative technologies, transportation links, peaceful space initiatives, mining, healthcare and labour mobility.
Ushakov noted that the political relationship between New Delhi and Moscow continues to be “regular and confidential,” underscoring the depth of the strategic dialogue.
The visit comes at a crucial juncture, as it comes at a time when US President Donald Trump has imposed 50 per cent tariffs on several categories of Indian goods, a development that has strained India-US bilateral ties.
In the run-up to the summit, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed that discussions may include Russia potentially supplying Su-57 fifth-generation fighter jets, as India proceeds with its own advanced aircraft procurement plans.
Putin is also expected to attend the Russia-India Business Forum and participate in the launch of RT’s television channel in India, signalling the expanding scope of bilateral cooperation.
Energy trade will remain a core point of negotiation. Citing Bloomberg, reports indicate that India aims to balance affordable Russian crude imports with concerns over possible US sanctions or tariff measures.
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Follow more LIVE updates below
Live Updates
- 4 Dec 2025 7:19 PM IST
Modi and Putin travel in same car
Modi and Putin have now got into the car and will travel together.
- 4 Dec 2025 7:18 PM IST
Modi receives Putin, and both share a hug
PM Narendra Modi received Russian President Vladimir Putin as he stepped out of the aircraft and walked on the red carpet laid out at the Palam Airport. The two leaders shook hands and hugged. Putin was welcomed with a traditional dance.
- 4 Dec 2025 7:08 PM IST
'Our most tracked flight now': Flightradar24 on Putin's aircraft to India
Putin's flight to Delhi was 'most tracked flight' on Flightradar24.
- 4 Dec 2025 7:00 PM IST
Putin lands in Delhi
Russian President Vladimir Putin has landed in Delhi. PM Narendra Modi is at Palam Airport to receive him.
- 4 Dec 2025 6:54 PM IST
Putin's India visit: 'It's a message to West and US'
The Federal spoke to KS Dakshina Murthy, consulting editor and senior observer of international affairs, on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India. He explains why the visit matters, how it fits into India–US tensions, and what it means for regional geopolitics.
Watch it here
- 4 Dec 2025 6:35 PM IST
PM Modi to receive Putin at airport
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reached Palam Airport in New Delhi to receive Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is set to land shortly.
- 4 Dec 2025 6:25 PM IST
What is at stake for India and Russia? Experts discuss Putin's visit
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s arrival in New Delhi today formed the central focus of this Capital Beat episode featuring international affairs experts Dr. Aftab Kamal Pasha and Sanjay Kapoor. The discussion examined the significance of the visit, the agreements expected at the 23rd India-Russia summit, and the broader context of India’s strained ties with the United States.
Watch the full episode here
- 4 Dec 2025 6:20 PM IST
Putin says there are points he can't agree to in US proposal to end Russia's war in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin says some proposals in a US plan to end the war in Ukraine are unacceptable to the Kremlin, indicating in comments published Thursday (December 4) that any deal is still some ways off.
US President Donald Trump has set in motion the most intense diplomatic push to stop the fighting since Russia launched the full-scale invasion of its neighbour nearly four years ago. But the effort has once again run into demands that are hard to reconcile, especially over whether Ukraine must give up land to Russia and how it can be kept safe from any future aggression by Moscow.
Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner are set to meet with Ukraine's lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, later Thursday in Miami for further talks, according to a senior Trump administration official who wasn't authorised to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Putin said his five-hour talks Tuesday in the Kremlin with Witkoff and Kushner were “necessary” and “useful,” but also “difficult work,” and some proposals were unacceptable.
Putin spoke to the India Today TV channel before visiting New Delhi on Thursday. Before the full interview was broadcast, Russian state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti quoted some of his remarks in it.
Tass quoted Putin as saying that in Tuesday's talks, the sides “had to go through each point” of the US peace proposal, “which is why it took so long.” “This was a necessary conversation, a very concrete one,” he said, with provisions that Moscow was ready to discuss, while others “we can't agree to.” Trump said Wednesday that Witkoff and Kushner came away from their marathon session confident that he wants to find an end to the war. “Their impression was very strongly that he'd like to make a deal,” he added.
Putin refused to elaborate on what Russia could accept or reject, and none of the other officials involved offered details of the talks.
“I think it is premature. Because it could simply disrupt the working regime of the peace effort, Tass quoted Putin as saying.
European leaders, left on the sidelines by Washington as US officials engage directly with Moscow and Kyiv, have accused Putin of feigning interest in Trump's peace drive.
Russian barrages of civilian areas of Ukraine continued overnight into Thursday. A missile struck Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday night, wounding six people, including a 3-year-old girl, according to city administration head Oleksandr Vilkul.
The attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown damaged more than 40 residential buildings, a school and domestic gas pipes, Vilkul said.
A 6-year-old girl died in the southern city of Kherson after Russian artillery shelling wounded her the previous day, regional military administration chief Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram.
The Kherson Thermal Power Plant, which provides heat for over 40,000 residents, shut down Thursday after Russia pounded it with drones and artillery for several days, he said.
Authorities planned emergency meetings to find alternate sources of heating, he said. Until then, tents were erected across the city where residents could warm up and charge electronic devices.
Russia also struck Odesa with drones, wounding six people, while civilian and energy infrastructure was damaged, said Oleh Kiper, head of the regional military administration.
Overall, Russia fired two ballistic missiles and 138 drones at Ukraine overnight, officials said.
Meanwhile, in the Russia-occupied part of the Kherson region, two men were killed by a Ukrainian drone strike on their vehicle Thursday, Moscow-installed regional leader Vladimir Saldo said. A 68-year-old woman was also wounded in the attack, he said. AP
- 4 Dec 2025 6:14 PM IST
Russia is interested in buying Indian products: Minister Reshetnikov
Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov told ANI, "Russia is interested in increasing trade exchange. We are interested in increasing supplies of Indian products in the Russian market, and are interested in balancing trade...We are very interested in buying Indian products..."
- 4 Dec 2025 6:08 PM IST
No Putin-Rahul meeting: Opposition's voice being stifled, says Gehlot
Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday accused the Centre of systematically suppressing the Opposition, saying that preventing foreign leaders from meeting Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi is dangerous for the country's democratic fabric.
In a post on X, Gehlot said the role of the Opposition is integral to a healthy democracy and that the term Opposition carries its own constitutional significance.
He said that from the time of former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh, visiting foreign leaders were always free to meet representatives of both the government and the Opposition.
Recalling a precedent, Gehlot said that when former US President Barack Obama visited India in 2010, the then Leader of Opposition, the late Sushma Swaraj, met him in keeping with democratic convention.
"It is unfortunate that the Modi government is not respecting this long-standing tradition. Weakening the Opposition weakens democracy itself," Gehlot said.
