Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the G20 summit in India next month and instead will send his Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the office of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday.
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Mr Modi’s office said he spoke to Vladimir Putin on the phone and “expressed his disagreement” over his decision not to attend the summit scheduled for September 9-10.
New Delhi and Moscow have forged ties since the Cold War, and Russia remains India’s largest arms supplier.
India, in turn, avoided any explicit condemnation of Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, although it strengthened its security ties with the United States.
In March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that it had issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin on war crimes charges related to the deportation of Ukrainian children. India is not a signatory state to the ICC.
The Kremlin denies these allegations, saying the arrest warrant for the Russian leader is “void”.