Insight Bureau:  Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss  arrived India today on March 31.

Sergey Lavrov will be on a two-day official visit to India from today.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issued a statement to announce Lavrov’s visit. The statement announced ,”Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, Mr. Sergey Lavrov will pay an official visit to New Delhi on 31 March -1 April 2022.”

The reason of Lavrov’s visit to New Delhi is said to be on India’s purchase of discounted Russian crude oil and putting in place a rupee-ruble payment system for bilateral trade in view of the Western sanctions against Moscow.

UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will convey to her Indian counterpart S. Jaishankar on Thursday about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A statement was released by the UK high commission on 31st March said that Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is in India today as part of a wider diplomatic push following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine last month.

“In a meeting with India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the foreign secretary will say Russia’s invasion of Ukraine underlines the importance of democracies working closer together to deter aggressors, reduce vulnerability to coercion and strengthen global security,” stated the statement.