Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit and discussed bilateral ties between the two nations.

Sharing images of the meeting, Jaishankar posted on X: "Good to meet with FM Sergey Lavrov of Russia on the sidelines of #BRICS2025."

"Discussed bilateral cooperation, West Asia, BRICS and SCO," he said.

The BRICS Summit is currently ongoing in Brazil.

Indian PM Narendra Modi is attending the Summit.

India-Russia Relationship

Russia has been a longstanding and time-tested partner for India. Development of India-Russia relations has been a key pillar of India's foreign policy.

Since the signing of the “Declaration on the India-Russia Strategic Partnership” in October 2000 (during the visit of President Putin), India-Russia ties have acquired a qualitatively new character with enhanced levels of cooperation in almost all areas, including political, security, defence, trade and economy, science & technology, culture, and people-to-people ties.

During the visit of the Russian President to India in December 2010, the Strategic Partnership was elevated to the level of “Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership.”

Under the Strategic Partnership, several institutionalized dialogue mechanisms operate at both political and official levels to ensure regular interaction and follow-up on cooperation activities.

The India-Russia Intergovernmental Commission (IRIGC) has two divisions – the Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC) co-chaired by the External Affairs Minister (EAM) from India and First Deputy Prime Minister (First DPM) Denis Manturov from Russia; and the Military & Military-Technical Cooperation (IRIGC-M&MTC) headed by the Defence Ministers of the two countries.

In December 2021, a new dimension to the bilateral cooperation was added with the first 2+2 Dialogue (Foreign and Defence Ministers of both countries) taking place alongside the Summit-level talks between Prime Minister & President of Russia Vladimir Putin.