India's Modi to visit Russia in July

MOSCOW:

Russia and India are preparing a visit to Russia by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian state news agency RIA quoted a Kremlin aide as saying on Tuesday.

RIA quoted a diplomatic source as saying Modi may visit in July. The Kremlin said in March that Modi had an open invitation to come to Russia and that a meeting with President Vladimir Putin would take place.

This will be the first state visit by Modi post-election and since he took oath as the second time PM of India.

71 members of his government took the oath of office after Modi on June 9, with 11 posts going to coalition allies who extracted them in exchange for their support -- including five in the top 30 cabinet posts.

But Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) old guard dominate the list, with key posts unchanged -- signalling broad policy continuity. That includes BJP loyalists Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar -- the defence, interior, transport, finance and foreign ministers, respectively, staying on in their jobs.

Modi had been forced into quick-fire talks with coalition partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), whose 293 seats guaranteed him the parliamentary numbers to govern.