New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi received President Vladimir Putin at the airport in New Delhi on Thursday, making a rare departure from protocol to signal continuity in the special and privileged strategic partnership between their nations, despite United States President Donald Trump’s claims of success in persuading India to slash its oil imports from Russia.

Notwithstanding the West’s frowns over New Delhi’s ties with Moscow, Modi and Putin will on Friday hold the 23rd India-Russia annual summit and finalise a roadmap to boost the bilateral economic cooperation by 2030, apart from witnessing the signing of several other agreements.

Modi hugged Putin at the tarmac of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi as the Russian President disembarked from his aircraft, com

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