Among talks on defence cooperation, Ajit Doval is also expected to speak about the delivery of the remaining S-400 missile systems, that played an important role during the India-Pakistan conflict and operation Sindoor in May this year. File
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval will hold meetings with senior Russian officials in Moscow on Wednesday (August 6, 2025), to discuss India-Russia defence and security cooperation, oil sanctions, and an upcoming Modi-Putin summit.
Mr. Doval’s visit to Russia began even as U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he would announce “very substantial” increases to the 25% tariffs on Indian goods expected to kick in on Thursday (August 7, 2025) because of Indian oil purchases from Russia.
“The current escalation of the geopolitical situation will also be discussed. Apart from that the topics will include such pressing matters as supplies of Russian oil [to India],” Russia’s official TASS agency reported.
Among talks on defence cooperation, Mr. Doval is also expected to speak about the delivery of the remaining S-400 missile systems, that played an important role during the India-Pakistan conflict and operation Sindoor in May this year. This is the NSA’s first visit to Moscow since Operation Sindoor, although he attended the SCO NSA meeting in Beijing in June and met with Mr. Shoigu’s deputy, Russia’s Security Council Deputy Secretary Aleksandr Venediktov there. In addition, Russia’s recent decision to grant recognition to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan is also expected to come up.
While Mr. Doval’s visit was scheduled some weeks ago, he is expected to talk about India’s stand on the U.S. threats and tariffs and will also prepare for the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India later this year for the annual summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two sides will also possibly discuss the latest moves for talks between Russia and Ukraine, after the Kremlin said on Tuesday (August 5, 2025) that U.S. Special envoy Steve Witkoff will be in Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Announcing the upcoming visit of Mr. Witkoff on Tuesday (August 5, 2025), Mr. Putin’s Presidential aide Dmitry Peshkov said that Mr. Putin was prepared to meet Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after expert-level talks but gave no timeline for the meeting.
When asked about Mr. Trump’s latest threats against India, Mr. Peshkov said that Russia believes “sovereign countries must have, and do have, the right to choose their trade partners, the partners in trade and economic cooperation, on their own, and independently determine those modes of trade and economic cooperation that suit the interests of a country in question.”
Later this month, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will also visit Moscow for talks on the visit, which has been delayed for several years due to the Ukraine conflict which began in February 2022. PM Modi had visited Moscow last July, reviving the summit after a gap of three years.
Mr. Doval travelled to Moscow overnight, leaving Delhi after the official and bilateral meetings during Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s State visit to Delhi.
In the U.S., Mr. Trump doubled down on the threats against India that came despite a strong statement from the Ministry of External Affairs that called U.S. and EU sanctions on India’s import of Russian oil “unjustified and unreasonable”.
“India has not been a good trading partner, because they do a lot of business with us, but we don’t do business with them. So, we settled on 25% (tariff), but I think I’m going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they’re buying Russian oil,” Mr. Trump told CNBC in an interview.
Since 2022, India increased its oil imports from Russia multi-fold, defying pleas from European countries to stop increasing Russian revenues, from procuring less than a percent of its imports from Russia, to nearly 40% of its oil at its peak.
After the U.S. announced plans for penalty tariffs on India last week, many Indian oil importers have reduced their demand, although the government said it would not submit to the tariffs by the U.S. and sanctions by the European Union. In its statement on Monday (August 4, 2025), the MEA had also pointed out that the U.S. and EU continue to trade on other goods with Russia.
Published – August 06, 2025 08:37 am IST
