External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar reached Moscow on Monday as a part of his two-day visit to Russia.

Jaishankar is set to hold talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, during the visit. Talks between the two sides are expected to cover a range of bilateral issues and exchange of views on various regional and international developments.

Jaishankar last visited the country in July 2021 followed by the visit of the Russian Foreign Minister to New Delhi in April 2022.

Earlier on Monday, ahead of EAM’s visit, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Russia and India stand for the active formation of a more just and equal polycentric world order.

“Russia and India stand for the active formation of a more just and equal polycentric world order, and proceed from the inadmissibility of promoting the imperialist diktat on the global arena,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said bilateral relations between the two countries bear the character of a special and privileged strategic partnership and effective interaction mechanisms have been formed between the two countries over the past decade.

“The key areas of cooperation with India are the further intensification of the political dialogue in a bilateral format and on international platforms, promotion of economic, financial, energy, military-technical, humanitarian, scientific and technical cooperation,” the Russian statement read.

According to the Russian foreign ministry, Lavrov and Jaishankar will discuss ways to advance joint work in the key areas and compare notes on the schedule of upcoming contacts.

“The talks will focus on the trade and investments, transport and logistics, the use of national currencies in mutual settlements, as well as promising projects in the energy sector, especially in the Arctic shelf and the Russian Far East,” the ministry said.

It said there would be an exchange of assessments on the current international issues with an emphasis on interaction within the UN, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Group of Twenty (G20) and RIC (Russia, India, China).

“The Ministers will also discuss India’s presidency in the SCO, efforts to fight terrorism, as well as a number of the regional issues, including the formation of a security architecture in the Asia-Pacific region, the situation around the Iranian nuclear problem, state of affairs in Afghanistan, Syria, and Ukraine,” the Russian foreign ministry said.

(With inputs from ANI)