Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday night (December 4) kick-started a nearly 27-hour visit to India to further shore up a nearly eight-decade bilateral partnership that remained on firm footing notwithstanding a fractious geopolitical environment and tensions.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi received Putin at New Delhi's Palam airport, hugging him and accorded him a warm welcome to India after a four-year gap. The two leaders left the airport in the same car, nearly three months after travelling together in a vehicle in the Chinese city of Tianjin after the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.

Private dinner planned

Modi is hosting a private dinner for Putin this evening, in a reciprocal gesture to the hospitality extended to the Indian prime minister by the Russian lea

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