Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit India on 6 December for his annual summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

During their talks, the two leaders will discuss ways to further deepen the special and privileged strategic partnership between the two countries.

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”The leaders will exchange views on topical issues on the international agenda, including joint work within the G20, BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a media briefing.

This will be the first in-person meeting between Modi and Putin after their talks at Brasilia on the margins of the BRICS Summit in November 2019.

Coinciding with the Modi-Putin summit, India and Russia will hold their first-ever ”2+2” meeting involving their foreign and defence ministers on 6 December which will provide the two strategic partners an opportunity to review the entire gamut of bilateral ties.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will lead the Indian delegation at the meeting while the Russian side will be headed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu.

The first such dialogue between the two countries is expected to see progress on the proposed leasing of a second nuclear powered submarine from Russia, procurement of additional 450 T-90 main battle tanks, S-400 air defence systems, additional SU-30 fighter jets and inking of the AK-203 rifles deal worth over Rs 6,000 crore.

”It is expected that the ministers will have in-depth discussions on key regional and international topics, including the situation in the Asia-Pacific region and developments on Afghanistan and Syria, as well as exchange views on interaction within the SCO and RIC,” sources said.

”In future, consultations in this format are intended to be organized on a regular basis, alternately in Russia and India,” sources added.

Russia is the fourth nation with which India is holding dialogue in this format. India is already engaged in the ”2+2” dialogue with the US, Japan and Australia.