Ahead of the prime minister’s visit to Moscow next week, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar met with his Russian counterpart at summit in Kazakhstan.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in separate meetings, declared the ‘best period in their history’ with China’s Xi Jinping and committed to increasing crude oil supplies to Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, reports thewire.in.

Jaishankar is in Kazakhstan leading the Indian delegation to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s summit, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi opted to skip the summit. While most guests began arriving in the Kazakh capital on Monday, the main day of the summit is on Thursday. Consequently, Wednesday’s schedule was filled with bilateral meetings between the participating leaders.

After his meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, Jaishankar tweeted that he had raised his “strong concern on Indian nationals who are currently in the war zone”. Last month, two more Indians working with the Russian army were killed at the Russia-Ukraine frontline, bringing the total number of Indian workers killed in the Ukraine war to four.

Along with the announcement of the deaths, India had also asked Russia to bring a “verified stop” to any further recruitment of Indian nationals by the Russian army, saying this would not be 'in consonance with our partnership'. There has been no public response from Russia so far, with the Russian foreign ministry only posting a photograph of the Lavrov-Jaishankar meeting without issuing any readout.

Next week, Modi will visit Russia for his first bilateral trip in his third term, a notable departure from his previous practice of limiting his initial foreign visits in each term to neighbouring countries. Meanwhile, the Russian president met with the Chinese president and declared that the two countries are “experiencing the best period in their history”. India has been wary about Russia’s strengthening ties with China, which have been gathering momentum in the wake of Moscow’s isolation from the West.

In another meeting that would have been scrutinised in Delhi, Putin met with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Astana. In his meeting, Putin expressed satisfaction at developing ties, asserting that he was ready to “increase” oil and grain supplies to help in Pakistan’s food security. Sharif called for expanding trade under a barter system, which will circumvent financial and banking issues. He also asserted that relations between Pakistan and Russia are not dependent on relations with other countries.