India Today at Russian economic high table, Vladimir Putin to deliver keynote

India Today Group is set to take centre stage at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Friday, with Foreign Affairs Editor Geeta Mohan moderating the forum’s high-profile leadership plenary featuring Russian President Vladimir Putin and three other world leaders.

The session, scheduled for 5.30 pm IST, will also feature Han Zheng, Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Samia Suluhu Hassan.

The four-day SPIEF leadership plenary is being viewed as one of the most significant geopolitical conversations of the year, bringing together key leaders from Russia, China, Central Asia and Africa.

The high-profile session comes at a time of growing global uncertainty driven by conflicts in West Asia, shifting geopolitical alliances and changing global power equations, developments that have also underscored India’s strategic balancing in recent months.

President Putin is expected to deliver an hour-long keynote address following Geeta Mohan’s opening remarks. The other three heads of state are scheduled to speak subsequently, after which an extensive question-and-answer session moderated by Mohan is expected to continue for over an hour.

The discussion is likely to focus on shifting global power centres, trade and investment flows, energy security, BRICS cooperation, de-dollarisation, regional partnerships and the evolving geopolitical order amid ongoing global conflicts and economic realignments.

The event will be broadcast live across India Today Group platforms, including India Today TV, Aaj Tak YouTube, India Today YouTube, India Today Global YouTube, Business Today YouTube and IndiaToday.in.

On Thursday, speaking at a meeting with heads of leading global news agencies in St Petersburg, Putin strongly backed India’s foreign policy, saying any attempts by the United States to pressure Prime Minister Narendra Modi over New Delhi’s ties with Moscow would be counterproductive and ultimately ineffective.

He also said Moscow regards New Delhi as a trusted partner and does not see India’s growing engagement with other countries, including the US, as a threat to bilateral ties.

In December last year, India Today Group aired an exclusive interaction with Putin from the Kremlin, hosted by Geeta Mohan and Anjana Om Kashyap.

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