Russian President Vladimir Putin’s arrival in New Delhi on Thursday for the 23rd India-Russia Annual Summit highlights not just the resilience of the “Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership" between the two nations but the remarkable personal rapport that has evolved between him and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over nearly a quarter of a century.

The roots of this long-standing relationship trace back to the year 2001, when Modi, then the newly appointed Chief Minister of Gujarat, accompanied then-Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his official state visit to Moscow. Photographs from that trip, which have resurfaced online, capture the Chief Minister alongside the towering figures of Vajpayee and Putin during official ceremonies.

The Modi-Putin relationship did not begin in 2

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