The trip coming after Russian President Putin hailed close ties with China.

Let's bring our East Asia government editor John Herskovich to talk a little bit more about this.

Obviously this was best in history in terms of those ties, a friendship without limits.

Is this the case when it comes to Modi and India?

Modi is trying to look at, he's looking at Russia and he's looking at China, he has a difficult balance between the two.

Russia is the biggest supplier of oil, a big supplier of weapons, and India is having some problems with China since they've had some armed conflict in 2020 at their border.

Relations have been at a low point, so when Modi sees this close relationship between Russia and China, it gives him some pause, some concern, and I think this trip to Russia will address a lot of the concerns that he has.

No pause when it comes to Putin looking at India, given that he does want to make it look like he has a lot of friends.

Is that the case?

Are we going to see a big reception for Modi in Russia?

I think so.

India has been a key player that hasn't really denounced Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. is trying to push it to do more, but Russia, it's looking, it's going to see itself more as a global pariah, especially with the NATO summit this week in Washington.

The U.S., its partners are really going to press Russia, and India has been courted by the U.S., and it's also been close to Russia, so this is going to be something that is going to come into play during Modi's visit.

Especially given that we have seen the diplomatic push from Mr. Putin, right, whether it's North Korea, Vietnam, how does this really position him in regional geopolitics?

Yeah, Putin has really made a lot of advances in the past few weeks.

The trip to North Korea helped him with procuring arms for his war in Ukraine, Vietnam going to an old Cold War partner to seek support, now he has the visit with India, the meeting last week with Xi Jinping during the security summit, Putin has really tried to strengthen his hand by meeting leaders in the region, and it looks like it's paying dividends, and it's coming at a crucial time with this NATO summit going forward, and Putin getting more scrutiny and perhaps even more pressure from the U.S. and its partners.