It is not common for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to receive a foreign dignitary at the airport, and it is even rarer for him to travel with the foreign leader in the same car from the airport.

Both these exceptions occurred on Thursday when Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived at Palam Airport in Delhi. In an unexpected gesture, the PM reached the airport to receive Putin. The Kremlin stated that Modi’s decision to meet Putin at the aircraft ramp “was unexpected, and the Russian side had not been informed in advance." PM Modi has previously received leaders like Barack Obama, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, Sheikh Hasina, and UAE President Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the airport.

However, with Putin, there was another surprise. Both leaders travelled from the

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