- Putin said on Thursday that Modi keeps raising an end to the Ukraine war and has "very good ideas" for a settlement both sides could accept.
- He did not say what those ideas are.
- Russia wants joint use of shipping routes with India and sees "very big potential" for cooperation beyond logistics.
- Moscow will extend credit for the International North-South Transport Corridor, Putin said, but Iran has to complete its work first.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has named Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a world leader who won't let the Ukraine war drop out of the conversation, and he says Moscow is grateful for it.
Speaking on Thursday, Putin said Modi has "an avid interest" in finding a settlement and brings "very good ideas" aimed at terms that all sides could accept. What those ideas actually are, he left unsaid. Past Indian readouts of meetings with Putin have stuck to calls for dialogue and diplomacy, and nothing in this week's coverage suggests a formal proposal is on the table.
In Putin's telling, Modi asks about ending the conflict even though the two men get along well personally. He described the Indian position as neutral but pointed at a quick, peaceful finish, and said Moscow is thankful for that wish.
It is a warm thing to say about a leader who has also drawn heat from Washington for buying Russian oil. Last year the US put extra tariffs on Indian goods over those purchases, a move Delhi criticised.
Delhi's script is familiar by now. Modi calls India's approach principled and humanitarian. In an August interview with Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun, quoted by Open Magazine, he said India is ready to back meaningful efforts toward a peaceful resolution, and that its good ties with both Russia and Ukraine, plus other stakeholders, could help bring an early and lasting peace.
The pattern runs back a few years. In Moscow in July 2024, Modi told Putin the war could not be settled on the battlefield. Weeks later he was in Kyiv, urging Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia to sit down together without delay. At the Kazan BRICS summit that October he said India was ready to provide all possible cooperation. At the SCO summit in Tianjin in September 2025, he said India welcomes every effort toward peace.
The economic half of Putin's remarks was more concrete. "There is a very big potential for economic cooperation with India, not just in logistics," he said.
Russia has already piloted a Chinese container ship and a South Korean vessel along what he called promising maritime routes, and talks with Indian partners on joint use are under way. Putin said Russia stands in favour of using these international corridors together.
The International North-South Transport Corridor, the long-planned route tying Russia to India through Iran, got a more guarded answer. Moscow can provide the credit, Putin said, but the project does not rest on Russia alone. Iranian partners have to finish their part of the work. Transit through Azerbaijan faces no obstacles, he added, and he remains in contact with President Ilham Aliyev.
None of this is idle. Russia is hunting for alternative ways to the Indian Ocean amid worries about maritime transit risks. In August, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin told TASS that rail links through Turkmenistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan should be explored. Any option that gets Russia access to India is acceptable, he said.
Modi and Putin last met in September, on the sidelines of the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi. Trade came up, along with the Programme for Economic Cooperation 2030 and cooperation in infrastructure, energy, technology, defence and culture.
That 2030 programme was already on the table in December 2025, when Putin made a state visit to India, his first in four years. Modi broke with protocol to greet him on the tarmac. The two sides also spoke then of working toward a free trade agreement between India and the Eurasian Economic Union.
The channels between the two capitals have stayed busy since. Reports from Moscow said a Russian deputy foreign minister and India's ambassador discussed the Ukraine situation just days before Putin spoke, though no details of that conversation were released. Around the BRICS summit, the two leaders had also agreed to strengthen the partnership between their countries, according to coverage from 12 September.
Indian outlets also reported that Putin praised the country's cultural diversity and unity as an example for others.
