Putin, Modi hold conversation in Russian-made presidential limousine in China's Tianjin

Tianjin/Moscow | Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Monday offered a lift by President Vladimir Putin in his Russian-made Aurus limousine, where they had an hour-long conversation before joining their teams for bilateral talks on the sidelines of the SCO summit here.

The Russian president waited for about 10 minutes for PM Modi to join him before boarding the car. The trip to reach the venue for their meeting lasted about 15 minutes, but they spent another 45 minutes in the car to continue their conversation.

“The two leaders continued their one-to-one dialogue on the way to the hotel, where they were to be joined by members of their teams. However, on reaching the hotel, they did not deboard the Russian president's limousine and continued their conversation for a further 45 minutes," Russian national radio station VestiFM reported.

Later, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the two leaders had a tete-a-tete in the car for about an hour.

"He did not want to interrupt the important conversation. But the 'home walls' of the car also played a role," Peskov told a pool TV reporter covering Putin’s visit to China.

“They were at home. That's the first thing. And secondly, when there’s an important discussion going on, there’s simply no time to interrupt walking and moving to different venues and so on. They felt comfortable there, and that’s why they continued the conversation. But the (bilateral) agenda is really more than intense,” Peskov said.

Modi took to social media to share a photo of himself and the Russian president inside the limousine.

“After the proceedings at the SCO Summit venue, President Putin and I travelled together to the venue of our bilateral meeting. Conversations with him are always insightful,” Modi said.

Experts in Moscow, on the condition of anonymity, said that Putin's presidential limousine is well protected from eavesdropping, and that may be the reason the two leaders were discussing highly sensitive bilateral issues.

They say perhaps this was the most important confidential conversation between Modi and Putin during which they probably discussed issues “not for the ears of others”.

During their bilateral talks, Modi conveyed to Putin that it is humanity's call to end the Ukraine conflict as soon as possible.

The call of humanity is to end the conflict as soon as possible and find ways to bring permanent peace to the region, he said.

Modi said India and Russia have stood "shoulder-to-shoulder" even in most difficult situations and their ties are crucial for global peace and stability. He also said that India is waiting to receive the Russian leader.

Putin is set to travel to India in December for summit talks with Modi.