Modi further stated that he looks forward to hosting President Putin in India later this year, confirming that the Russian leader has been invited for the annual bilateral summit.

The 50% tariffs President Trump announced this week were officially designed to drive a wedge between India and Russia, but so far the only rupture they've caused is with the United States. Why it matters: The steep levies over India's purchases of Russian oil are threatening to unravel years of calculated U.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone and thanked him for sharing the latest developments on Ukraine. The conversation between the two leaders came days after U.