Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend next month’s G20 summit in India, and will instead send his Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office announced on Monday.
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Modi’s office said that Modi had spoken to Vladimir Putin by telephone, and “expressed his lack of understanding” regarding his decision not to attend the summit scheduled for September 9 and 10.
New Delhi and Moscow have had ties since the Cold War, and Russia remains India’s largest arms supplier.
India, for its part, avoided explicit condemnation of Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, although it strengthened its security ties with the United States.
In March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced it had issued an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges for deporting Ukrainian children. India is not a signatory to the ICC.
The Kremlin denied the accusations and ruled that the arrest warrant against the Russian leader was “null.”
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