India, Russia Diplomats Talk on Future Engagements, Review Ties

India and Russia, on Monday (March 30, 2026), held their Foreign Office Consultations in New Delhi, amidst a global concern over the ongoing West Asia military conflict and a day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was working to host Indian Prime Minister Modi later this year.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko headed the delegation during the talks with India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri-led delegation, according to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

“Both sides reviewed the full spectrum of Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership and shared perspectives on bilateral, regional, and global issues of mutual interest,” India’s MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

A Russian Embassy readout of the meeting said the two sides “discussed a wide range of issues on the bilateral agenda, including the schedule of upcoming contacts”, indicating that schedules of high-level meetings were also discussed.

Later in the evening, Rudenko met India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar, and they discussed “regional and global developments”.

India is this year’s chair of BRICS, which includes Russia, China, and Brazil among its founding members. The grouping has not come out with a statement yet on the West Asia conflict, and a consensus eludes the grouping, considering that other members included nations affected by the war between Iran and the US-Israel combine.

The latest West Asian war began on February 28 when the US-Israel joint airstrikes on Iran killed the latter’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, resulting in an equally violent response from Tehran, which also targeted American and Israeli military bases in neighbouring United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, among others.

The BRICS consensus on the West Asian war has been impossible, as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which are now opposed to Iran’s attacks on American bases on their territory, are also members of the grouping.