New Delhi, Apr 5 (PTI) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived here on Monday on a nearly 19-hour visit which is aimed at preparing ground for the annual India-Russia summit.
Ahead of his visit, the Russian Embassy said Moscow attaches great importance to collective work based on the principles of goodwill, consensus and equality, and rejects "confrontation and bloc-type approaches".
Lavrov will hold extensive talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday, officials said.
The Russian foreign minister arrived here at around 9 pm on Monday and is scheduled to depart for Islamabad at 4 pm on Tuesday.
The Russian embassy said the special and privileged strategic partnership with India is one of the Russia's foreign policy priorities.
It said Lavrov will discuss topical issues of bilateral relations with an emphasis on the forthcoming "highest level" meetings as well as implementation of outcomes of the 20th Russian-Indian summit held in Vladivostok in 2019.
Important set of topics related to the situation in the Asia-Pacific region and Afghanistan will be discussed in the talks between the two foreign ministers, it said.
"India is a responsible and influential global player. We share the same vision of the model of the emerging polycentric world order," the embassy said in a statement.
"In the spirit of the special and privileged strategic partnership we regularly check the status of our positions and coordinate approaches on a wide range of issues, including reform of the global governance and strengthening the UN's central coordinating role in international affairs," it added.
The India and Russia annual summit was postponed last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Both the countries have a mechanism under which India's prime minister and the Russian president hold a summit meeting annually to review the entire gamut of ties.
So far 20 annual summit meetings have taken place alternatively in India and Russia.
Russia has been a time-tested partner for India and the country has been a key pillar of New Delhi's foreign policy.
