Putin shares limousine with Modi to travel to bilateral meeting venue in China

PM Modi and President Putin shared a private hour-long conversation in Putin’s AURUS limousine en route to bilateral talks at the SCO Summit in Tianjin. Modi urged an end to the Ukraine conflict and reaffirmed India's commitment to lasting peace

Tianjin: Prime Minister Narendra Modi was offered a lift by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his AURUS limousine to reach the venue of their bilateral talks on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit here on Monday.

“The two leaders continued their one-to-one dialogue on the way to the hotel where they were to be joined by members of their teams. However, on reaching the hotel they did not deboard the Russian president’s limousine and continued their conversation for 50 minutes,” Russian national radio station VestiFM reported.

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Later, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the two leaders had tet-a-tet in the car for about an hour.

Modi also took to social media to share a photo of himself and the Russian president inside the limousine.

“After the proceedings at the SCO Summit venue, President Putin and I travelled together to the venue of our bilateral meeting. Conversations with him are always insightful,” Modi said.

Commentators in Moscow say perhaps this was the most important confidential conversation between Modi and Putin during which they probably discussed issues “not for the ears of others”.

During their bilateral talks, Modi conveyed to Putin that it is humanity’s call to end the Ukraine conflict as soon as possible.

The call of humanity is to end the conflict as soon as possible and find ways to bring permanent peace to the region, he said.

Modi also said that India is waiting to receive the Russian leader.