Modi, Putin to energise oil & gas partnership

The two leaders met in this southeastern Chinese city on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit.

"The two sides basically touched upon several aspects of the bilateral relationship. President Putin recalled prime minister's visit to Russia earlier this year. And, he thanked the prime minister for high-level participation from India at the Eastern Economic Forum," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told reporters at a briefing here.

He said that during the Modi-Putin meeting several bilateral issues were discussed like the cooperation in the oil and natural gas sector.

Kumar said the two leaders also discussed how they should work together to promote trade and investment.

During the meeting, the two leaders also discussed cultural exchanges.

"President Putin mentioned about the 'Festival of India', which was organised in Russia earlier this year. Discussions also took place on the promotion of tourism between the two countries and also on the student exchange between the two sides," Kumar said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday sought a strong partnership among BRICS nations to spur economic growth, saying that the bloc of emerging countries has contributed to the stability in a world "drifting towards uncertainty".

Addressing the plenary session of the BRICS Summit in China's Xiamen city, Modi said trade and economy were the foundations of the cooperation among BRICS — Brazil-Russia- India-China-South Africa.

He suggested some steps that can be taken to upgrade mutual cooperation. He called for the creation of a BRICS rating agency to cater to financing needs of sovereign and corporate entities of developing countries.

The prime minister said a strong partnership among member nations on innovation and digital economy can help spur growth, promote transparency and support the sustainable development goals.

He also urged central banks of the member nations to further strengthen their capabilities and promote cooperation between the Contingent Reserve Arrangement of the grouping and the International Monetary Fund. The prime minister said BRICS countries can work closely with International Solar Alliance (ISA) launched by Indian and France in November 2015.

"Our five countries have complementary skills and strengths to promote use of renewable and solar energy. The NDB can also establish an effective link with ISA to support such cooperation. We would wish to see more clean energy funding, particularly in solar energy, from the New Development Bank," Modi said.

He also called for scaling up cooperation in skill development and exchange of best practices.

"India would be happy to work towards more focused capacity building engagement between BRICS and African countries in areas of skills, health, infrastructure, manufacturing and connectivity," the prime minister said.

The prime minister also emphasised the need to accelerate track of cooperation in smart cities, urbanisation and disaster management.