Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday night held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Johannesburg, and said the friendship between the two countries was deep-rooted.
Modi was meeting Putin after their informal meeting in May in the Black Sea city of Sochi in Russia in May.
Modi and Putin then met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Qingdao, China, in June.
"Wide-ranging and productive talks with President Putin. India's friendship with Russia is deep-rooted and our countries will continue working together in multiple sectors. @KremlinRussia," Prime Minister Modi said in a tweet.
During their meeting in Sochi, India and Russia had elevated their strategic partnership to a "special privileged strategic partnership".
Before meeting Putin, Modi had a "very productive" meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit on Thursday, during which he emphasised the need to maintain the "momentum" generated by their recent meetings and provide "proper instructions" to their militaries to maintain peace at the border.
Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said Modi expressed his willingness to send National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to China this year for special representative-level boundary talks.
"Both the leaders [Modi and Jinping] made a reference to their informal summit meeting in Wuhan in April as well as the subsequent follow-up meeting in Qingdao in June. They were particularly satisfied with the efforts being made by the officials of the two sides to strengthen bilateral engagements and to implement some of the understandings and decisions that the two leaders had reached at Wuhan," Gokhale told reporters.
He said Modi saw Thursday's meeting as yet another instance where the two sides could review and upgrade their relationship.
"Both leaders also remarked that in the last few months, mutual trust has increased between the two sides," Gokhale said.
Jinping once again conveyed to Modi that he was very happy to accept the latter's invitation to visit India for an informal summit, the second one between the two leaders, next year and both sides also agreed to follow up on a number of issues, he said.
Modi arrived in Johannesburg on Wednesday to attend the two-day BRICS summit. The theme of the summit was 'BRICS in Africa'.
BRICS is a grouping of emerging nations formed in 2009 and comprises five countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Representing over 40 per cent of the world's population, the block's growth rates surpass those of the developed countries of the G7.