Hugs & handshakes: Modi, Putin send out a message

Uninterrupted Conversation: The Two Leaders Share Limousine

- ARCHIS MOHAN

The Russian foreign ministry on Monday posted its "video of the day" on social media that had Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with their hands clasped, approaching Chinese President Xi Jinping, during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin.

The clip showed the three leaders, briefly in a huddle along with their aides, sharing good-natured banter.

The Modi-Putin-Xi huddle, that took place before the start of the plenary session of the SCO summit, had Western media interpret it as a message to US President Donald Trump.

As the day progressed, there was more of such symbolism, especially the camaraderie that Modi and Putin displayed.

Nearly a fortnight after Modi had posted on social media that he received a phone call from his "friend" Putin to brief him on his Alaska meeting with Trump, the Russian President and the Indian PM's meeting in Tianjin had the Western media talk about their hand holding, hugs and a limousine ride.

It included an almost 50-minute "confidential conversation" in Putin's Aurus Senat, a heavily armoured luxury limousine of the Russian President.

India and Moscow's engagement with each other has become robust after August 7 when Trump signed an executive order imposing a stiff penalty on Indian goods for New Delhi's purchase of Russian oil.