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Updated: Jun 20, 2019 01:34 IST

Russian deputy prime minister Yury Trutnev met external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday to prepare the grounds for PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Vladivostok in August to attend the Eastern Economic Forum as the chief guest.

Trutnev, who is also President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District, also discussed ways to increase India’s role in the resource-rich region. Trutnev, the senior-most Russian leader to visit New Delhi since Modi’s re-election, also met National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

“The visit was undertaken to help both sides prepare grounds for the visit of Prime Minister to Vladivostok in early September to participate in the 5th edition of the Eastern Economic Forum as the chief guest of the event,” said a statement from the external affairs ministry.

“The visit also provided opportunity to explore bilateral cooperation in the sectors of diamond-processing, petroleum and natural gas, coal and mining, agro-processing and tourism, which have been identified as the priority areas for development in the Russian Far East...,” the statement added.

India’s potential role in developing Russia’s Far East had figured in discussions between Modi and Putin when they met on the margins of the recent Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Kyrgyzstan.

Trutnev, who came to India with a high-level delegation that included senior officials from the Russian ministry for Far East development, Far East Investment and Export Agency, representatives of Russian regions, industry representatives and academia, also attended a roundtable discussion involving representatives of leading Indian universities to foster closer partnership.