Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has pledged that agreements on energy supplies to India will be fulfilled despite unfair external competition, as he underlined that the relations between the two countries are based on friendship and there is no scenario in which their paths would diverge.

In an interview with Russia Today-India ahead of his visit to New Delhi this week, Mr. Lavrov also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he is one of the most energetic leaders the world has ever seen.

“I can guarantee that India’s interests as they apply to Russian supplies will not suffer. We will do everything to ensure that this unfair and dishonest competition does not damage our agreements,” he said.

Mr. Lavrov pointed out that Russia has never failed to fulfil its obligations to India or anyone else when it comes to energy supplies.

“The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant is our flagship project. It meets a significant share of India’s needs,” he said. “Cooperation on the construction of new power units for this nuclear plant is continuing. Even so, India needs more. We continue supplying hydrocarbons such as gas, oil, and coal.”

The Kudankulam nuclear power plant is being built in Tamil Nadu with the technical assistance of Russia. The construction began in March 2002. Since February 2016, the first power unit of the Kudankulam NPP has been steadily operating at its design capacity of 1,000 MW.

The plant is expected to start operating at full capacity in 2027, according to Russian state media.

Mr. Lavrov said Prime Minister Modi is “one of the most energetic leaders the world has ever known.”

“He possesses great energy and channels it towards extremely important goals such as achieving maximum sovereignty across all spheres: the economy, the military, defence, culture, and the preservation of India’s civilisational wealth, which is unmatched by any other country.”

Mr. Lavrov said the relations between India and Russia are based on friendship and there is no scenario in which their paths would diverge.

“There isn’t just one word for these relations. Not because human languages aren’t rich enough, but because it is hard to imagine a relationship so full and deep,” he said while replying to a question.

“A situation where our paths diverge simply does not exist — it is unthinkable. We began our conversation with the very foundation of Russian-Indian relations: friendship,” Mr. Lavrov noted.

Stating that ‘Hindi-Rusi bhai bhai’ (Indians and Russians are brothers), Mr. Lavrov said that’s not just a fun slogan to chant, it has become part of our culture.

“Indian cinema, Raj Kapoor, more recent television series and films — they are immensely popular in Russia, everywhere, in every corner. The economy, joint energy production, military cooperation, nuclear and other forms of energy, cultural and humanitarian ties, and a high-level political dialogue marked by unprecedented trust — all of it is rock solid,” he said.

“So anyone worried about the future of Russia-India friendship can rest assured. We must always be aware of the threats that some are posing to our relations, trying to undermine them, creating closed structures, and making attempts to impose their own rules on how to deal with Russia. We see all of that, and so do our Indian friends. That makes it all the more valuable that those attempts keep failing,” Mr. Lavrov added.

During his visit to India, Mr. Lavrov will hold talks with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar and attend the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ meeting. The two Ministers will exchange views on current international and regional issues, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“Special attention is expected to be paid to the situation in the Middle East. The Ministers are also expected to compare notes on cooperation within the UN, BRICS and the G20,” it added.

It said that the two Ministers will discuss a wide range of priority areas of bilateral cooperation.

“These include expanding trade, intensifying efforts to build sustainable transport, logistics, and financial channels protected from unlawful external pressure, deepening energy cooperation, and increasing collaboration in science and space technology,” the Ministry said.

Published – May 14, 2026 07:01 am IST

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has pledged that agreements on energy supplies to India will be fulfilled despite unfair external competition, as he underlined that the relations between the two countries are based on friendship and there is no scenario in which their paths would diverge.

In an interview with Russia Today-India ahead of his visit to New Delhi this week, Mr. Lavrov also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he is one of the most energetic leaders the world has ever seen.

“I can guarantee that India’s interests as they apply to Russian supplies will not suffer. We will do everything to ensure that this unfair and dishonest competition does not damage our agreements,” he said.

Mr. Lavrov pointed out that Russia has never failed to fulfil its obligations to India or anyone else when it comes to energy supplies.

“The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant is our flagship project. It meets a significant share of India’s needs,” he said. “Cooperation on the construction of new power units for this nuclear plant is continuing. Even so, India needs more. We continue supplying hydrocarbons such as gas, oil, and coal.”

The Kudankulam nuclear power plant is being built in Tamil Nadu with the technical assistance of Russia. The construction began in March 2002. Since February 2016, the first power unit of the Kudankulam NPP has been steadily operating at its design capacity of 1,000 MW.

The plant is expected to start operating at full capacity in 2027, according to Russian state media.

Mr. Lavrov said Prime Minister Modi is “one of the most energetic leaders the world has ever known.”

“He possesses great energy and channels it towards extremely important goals such as achieving maximum sovereignty across all spheres: the economy, the military, defence, culture, and the preservation of India’s civilisational wealth, which is unmatched by any other country.”

Mr. Lavrov said the relations between India and Russia are based on friendship and there is no scenario in which their paths would diverge.

“There isn’t just one word for these relations. Not because human languages aren’t rich enough, but because it is hard to imagine a relationship so full and deep,” he said while replying to a question.

“A situation where our paths diverge simply does not exist — it is unthinkable. We began our conversation with the very foundation of Russian-Indian relations: friendship,” Mr. Lavrov noted.

Stating that ‘Hindi-Rusi bhai bhai’ (Indians and Russians are brothers), Mr. Lavrov said that’s not just a fun slogan to chant, it has become part of our culture.

“Indian cinema, Raj Kapoor, more recent television series and films — they are immensely popular in Russia, everywhere, in every corner. The economy, joint energy production, military cooperation, nuclear and other forms of energy, cultural and humanitarian ties, and a high-level political dialogue marked by unprecedented trust — all of it is rock solid,” he said.

“So anyone worried about the future of Russia-India friendship can rest assured. We must always be aware of the threats that some are posing to our relations, trying to undermine them, creating closed structures, and making attempts to impose their own rules on how to deal with Russia. We see all of that, and so do our Indian friends. That makes it all the more valuable that those attempts keep failing,” Mr. Lavrov added.

During his visit to India, Mr. Lavrov will hold talks with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar and attend the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ meeting. The two Ministers will exchange views on current international and regional issues, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“Special attention is expected to be paid to the situation in the Middle East. The Ministers are also expected to compare notes on cooperation within the UN, BRICS and the G20,” it added.

It said that the two Ministers will discuss a wide range of priority areas of bilateral cooperation.

“These include expanding trade, intensifying efforts to build sustainable transport, logistics, and financial channels protected from unlawful external pressure, deepening energy cooperation, and increasing collaboration in science and space technology,” the Ministry said.

Published – May 14, 2026 07:01 am IST

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, second left, and China’s President Xi Jinping, centre, hold a talk at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on Wednesday (April 15, 2026). 
| Photo Credit: AP

In this photo released by The State Duma, The Federal Assembly of The Russian Federation Press Service, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gestures as he delivers his speech at the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament in Moscow, on February 11, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

Moscow:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said he hopes the West took “seriously” Moscow’s recent use of a hypersonic missile in Ukraine, and warned that Russia was ready to use “any means” to defend itself.

The United States and its allies “must understand that we would be ready to use any means not to allow them to succeed in what they call strategic defeat of Russia,” Lavrov said in an interview with US media personality Tucker Carlson released Thursday.

Two weeks ago, Russia fired its new Oreshnik hypersonic missile on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in a major escalation of the almost three-year war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has since threatened to use the weapon on Kyiv in response to Ukraine’s strikes on Russia’s territory.

“We are sending signals and we hope that the last one, a couple of weeks ago, the signal with the new weapons system called Oreshnik… was taken seriously,” Lavrov said.

While he insisted that Russia doesn’t want to escalate the situation and wants to “avoid any misunderstanding” with Washington and its partners, Lavrov warned that “we will send additional messages if they don’t draw necessary conclusions.”

Putin said the Oreshnik missile flies at 10 times the speed of sound and cannot be intercepted by air defenses.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the strike “the latest bout of Russian madness” and appealed for updated air-defense systems to meet the new threat.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov addresses the 79th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, on September 28, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russia’s top diplomat warned Saturday (September 28, 2024) against “trying to fight to victory with a nuclear power,” delivering a U.N. General Assembly speech packed with condemnations of what Russia sees as Western machinations in Ukraine and elsewhere — including inside the United Nations itself.

Three days after Russian President Vladimir Putin aired a shift in his country’s nuclear doctrine, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the West of using Ukraine — which Russia invaded in February 2022 — as a tool to try “to defeat” Moscow strategically.

“I’m not going to talk about the senselessness and the danger of the very idea of trying to fight to victory with a nuclear power, which is what Russia is,” he said.

Also Read: Russia ‘can only be forced into peace’, Zelenskyy tells U.N.

The spectre of nuclear threats and confrontation has hung over the war in Ukraine since its start. Shortly before the invasion, Putin reminded the world that his country was “ one of the most powerful nuclear states,” and he put its nuclear forces on high alert shortly after. His nuclear rhetoric has ramped up and toned down at various points since.

On Wednesday (September 25, 2024), Mr. Putin said that if attacked by any country supported by a nuclear-armed nation, Russia will consider that a joint attack.

He didn’t specify whether that would bring a nuclear response but he stressed that Russia could use nuclear weapons in response to a conventional assault that posed a “critical threat to our sovereignty.”

OPINION | The risks of Russia’s nuclear posturing

The United States and the European Union called his statements “irresponsible.”

The new posture was seen as a message to the U.S. and other Western countries as Ukraine seeks their go-ahead to strike Russia with longer-range weapons. The Biden administration this week announced an additional $2.7 billion in military aid for Ukraine, but it doesn’t include the type of long-range arms that Zelenskyy is seeking, nor a green light to use such weapons to strike deep into Russia.

More than 2½ years into the fighting, Russia is making slow but continuing gains in Ukraine’s east. Ukraine has repeatedly struck Russian territory with missiles and drones and embarrassed Moscow with an audacious incursion by troops in a border region last month.

New York:

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held a bilateral meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday (local time) on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York.

“Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Minister of External Affairs of India Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar hold talks on the sidelines of the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia said in an X post.

In response to Lavrov’s post, Mr Jaishankar posted on X, “Met FM Sergey Lavrov this afternoon at UNGA 79. Discussed our bilateral cooperation and regional issues.”

He also met New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters and said that it was ‘nice to see’ him.

“Nice to see DPM & FM Winston Peters of New Zealand at UNGA 79,” Mr Jaishankar said on X.

S Jaishankar also met several delegates and diplomats on the sidelines of UNGA including Kazakhstan Foreign Minister Nurtleu, Morocco Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, Prime Minister of Belgium Alexander De Croo, and Swiss Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, among many others.

Foreign Minister also held a meeting with the Belgian PM and discussed manufacturing and technology cooperation as well as exchanging their views on the situation in Ukraine amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“Glad to meet PM Alexader De Croo on the sidelines of UNGA 79 today. Discussed manufacturing and technology cooperation. Also exchanged views on Ukraine,” he said in a post in X.

Mr Jaishanakar also held talks with Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis and discussed an array of topics, including shipping, energy, mobility, connectivity, and defence.

“Delighted to meet FM Giorgos Gerapetritis of Greece. Our conversation was focused on shipping, energy, mobility, connectivity, and defence. Congratulated Greece on entering UNSC for 2025-26,” he said in an X post.

Mr Jaishankar also met UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy and held talks with him on strengthening the India-UK Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

“Good meeting with UK FS David Lammy on the sidelines of UNGA 79. Carried forward our conversations on strengthening the India-UK Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Also discussed the conflict in Ukraine,” Jaishankar said in another post in X.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Astana:

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said he clearly and strongly raised the issue of Indians stranded in the Russia-Ukraine conflict zone with his counterpart Sergey Lavrov during a bilateral in Kazakhstan’s Asthana.

On whether he raised the stranded Indians issue with Lavrov, Mr Jaishankar told ANI, “Very clearly and strongly… several Indians have been pressed into service with the Russian Army. Only when they come back will we know the full circumstances. But whatever the circumstances are, to us it is unacceptable that Indian citizens find themselves in the army of another country in a warzone. I told him that we seek their cooperation and that they are our friend and partners. We have to find a way so that these people can return to India as quickly and effectively as possible.”

S Jaishankar added that Mr Lavrov appreciated the point and the Indian Foreign Ministry has been speaking to the Russian Defence Ministry in this regard.

“I urged him that we need a much stronger follow-up. I have taken it up and I intend to continue taking it up until all our people there come back,” he said.

Mr Jaishankar also shared his view on the upcoming visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Russia and called it a great opportunity for both leaders to sit down and directly talk to each other on the growing economic relationship between the two countries.

“There was a bit of a delay in our annual summits, it is a good tradition, we are two countries which have a strong history of working together. We did value the need for an annual summit. Last year when I went to Moscow, I carried a message from the PM that we are committed to the annual summit and we will do it sooner…it is a regular recurrence. It is a way of taking stock of any relationship…one of the biggest changes has been that our economic relationship with Russia has grown tremendously…at the leadership of level, it will be a great opportunity for PM Modi and (Russian) President Putin to sit down and directly talk to each other,” Mr Jaishankar said.

Around 20 persons were allegedly duped into fighting for the Russian Army in the war against Ukraine on the pretext of lucrative jobs. At least two Indians have died.

The MEA confirmed in April that among the Indian nationals who were working as support staff in the Russian Army, 10 have returned to India.

Earlier this year, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), busted a major human trafficking network running across the country targeting Indian nationals on the promise of offering lucrative jobs abroad but allegedly sending them to the Russia-Ukraine war zone.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during a meeting, in Astana, Kazhakstan.
| Photo Credit: PTI

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Wednesday, July 3, 2024, raised the issue of Indian nationals in the war zone and pressed for their safe return during a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov here.

Mr. Jaishankar arrived here on Tuesday. July 2, to represent India at the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

“Good to meet Russian FM Sergey Lavrov in Astana today. Wide ranging conversation on our bilateral partnership and contemporary issues. Noted the progress in many areas since our last meeting in December 2023,” Mr. Jaishankar posted on X.

FMs meet ahead of Modi-Putin talks

The meeting between the two Foreign Ministers happened days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s planned visit to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Raised our strong concern on Indian nationals who are currently in the war zone. Pressed for their safe and expeditious return,” he added in his post, which also had photos from the meeting.

The External Affairs Minister also discussed the global strategic landscape and exchanged assessments and views with Mr. Lavrov.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr. Jaishankar met Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Murat Nurtleu and discussed expanding Strategic Partnership and India’s increasing engagement with Central Asia in various formats.

He also exchanged views on regional and global issues with Nurtleu, who also holds the portfolio as Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister.

New Delhi:

External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar has received praise from his Russia counterpart for asking the West “to mind their own business” when it questioned India’s procurement of Russian oil after the Ukraine war began. 

Russian FM recalls words of ‘amigo’ Jaishankar, who advised Europeans to look at themselves before lecturing others

“My friend, Foreign Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar, was once at the UN, giving a speech. He was asked why they started buying so much oil from Russia. He… pic.twitter.com/nD4C0YHMDj

— Sputnik India (@Sputnik_India) March 4, 2024

In a video shared by Russian news agency Sputnik, the country’s foreign affairs minister Sergey Lavrov is seen addressing the World Youth Forum in Sochi. “My friend, Foreign Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar, was once at the UN, giving a speech. He was asked why they started buying so much oil from Russia. He advised them to mind their own business and reminded them at the same time how much oil the West had started buying and continued to buy oil from the Russian Federation. This is national dignity,” Lavrov says in Russian.

After the Ukraine war broke out, most countries of the West imposed sanctions on Moscow and stopped buying crude Russian oil. India, however, refused to play along. Dr Jaishankar articulated New Delhi’s position on international forums, emphasising that Indian citizens cannot afford high energy prices and that the Narendra Modi government is only trying to get the best deal possible for its citizens.

The foreign minister also called out Europe’s “double standards” and said that it needs to grow out of the mindset that Europe’s problems are the world’s problems, but the world’s problems are not Europe’s problems.

More recently, Dr Jaishankar was asked about India’s continuing procurement of Russian oil at a security conference in Munich. He was asked if this becomes a problem in its equations with other major allies.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock by his side, Dr Jaishankar replied, “Why should it be a problem? I am smart enough to have multiple options. You should be admiring and not criticising. Is it a problem for others? I do not think so.”

The External Affairs Minister has said India’s position on the Ukraine war is “very clear and very public”. “The Indian position articulated by my prime minister is that this is not an era of war and that dialogue and diplomacy is the answer,” he has said.

The Narendra Modi government’s stand has received praise from Moscow earlier, too. In January, Russia President Vladimir Putin said Moscow “can rely on India and its leadership because it is assured that New Delhi won’t play ‘games’ against them on the international stage”.

“India is pursuing an independent foreign policy, which is not easy in today’s world. But India, with a population of 1.5 billion, has the right to do so. And under the leadership of the Prime Minister, that right is being realised. This is not just a statement, it is important from the point of organising joint work because it gives us the opportunity to forecast the actions of our partners in medium and long terms,” Putin said.