Reports claimed the summit had not been held as Moscow is unhappy with New Delhi for joining the Indo-Pacific initiative and the Quad

The Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday took strong exception to “false stories” in the media over the India-Russia annual summit.

“The India-Russia Annual Summit did not take place in 2020 because of the COVID pandemic. This was a mutually agreed decision between the two Governments. Any imputation otherwise is false and misleading.” MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.

In December 2010, during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin bilateral ties between India and Russia were upgraded to ‘Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership from ‘Strategic Partnership’.

Some media outlets suggested that India and Russia have not held their bilateral annual summit as Moscow is unhappy with New Delhi for joining the Indo-Pacific initiative and Quad.

“Spreading false stories in important relationships is particularly irresponsible,” the MEA spokesperson said.