Putin’s visit reflects India’s freedom of choice: Jaishankar at HTLS 2025

The summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Putin resulted in a five-year economic programme to diversify and balance trade, a mobility agreement and measures to deepen the energy partnership, and Jaishankar noted at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit that India-Russia ties have been among the steadiest big power relationships in a world that has seen a lot of ups and downs in the past eight decades.

Asked if Putin’s visit complicated dealings with the US, Jaishankar said India has relations with all major countries and it isn’t reasonable for any country to “expect to have a veto” on how New Delhi develops its relationships. “I think we’ve always made it very clear that we have multiple relationships. We have a freedom of choice. We talk about what is called strategic autonomy and that continues and I cannot imagine why anybody would have reason to expect the contrary,” he said.

Jaishankar, who began his conversation with a quip about following the session featuring British star Hugh Grant while pointing out that foreign policy is currently more exciting than any movie, said Putin’s visit focused on “reimagining” the India-Russia relationship because economic ties hadn’t kept pace with defence and strategic collaboration.