Tianjin (China) 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.
Later, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the two leaders had a tête-à-tête in the car for about an hour.
The car in which they travelled was Putin’s Aurus limousine.
During their travel, Prime Minister Modi and Putin conversed on numerous issues before they held talks during their bilateral meeting.
It was also known that they spent nearly 45 minutes in the car even after reaching the bilateral meeting venue.
Soon after their shared car ride, PM Modi, in an X post, mentioned, “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,” the Prime Minister mentioned.
According to Russian national radio station VestiFM, “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,” it added.
Later, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the two leaders had tet-a-tet in the car for about an hour, news agency PTI reported.
It also quoted commentators in Moscow as saying that perhaps this was the most important confidential conversation between Modi and Putin during which they probably discussed issues “not for the ears of others”.
Later, during their bilateral talks, PM Modi conveyed to Putin that it is humanity’s call to end the Ukraine conflict as soon as possible.
PM Modi also said that India is waiting to receive the Russian leader.
