The visit, which is expected around April 22, is long overdue after Johnson was forced to cancel planned visits to India twice last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The leaders of the Quad comprising India, the United States, Australia and Japan are set to demonstrate that the grouping is a 'force for global good' and has a unifying commitment to a rules-based international order amid China's increasingly intimidatory behaviour.
It is learnt that Lavrov is expected to travel to India either on Thursday or Friday after concluding a two-day visit to China.
The talks took place on the sidelines of the G-20 foreign ministers' meeting in the Indonesian city of Bali.
India for the first time on Wednesday voted against Russia during a "procedural vote" at the United Nations Security Council on Ukraine, as the 15-member powerful UN body invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to address a meeting through a video tele-conference.
Congress leaders have supported the Union government's stand of abstaining from voting in the anti-Russia resolution in the United Nations General Assembly, informed sources on Thursday.
India on Thursday abstained in the UN General Assembly on a vote moved by the US to suspend Russia from the UN Human Rights Council over allegations that Russian soldiers killed civilians while retreating from towns near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
In an interactive session at a think-tank in Paris, Jaishankar said he was optimistic about resolving the issue through dialogue and that significant headway has been made in many of the friction points.
India hit back at Pakistan in the UN Security Council after Islamabad raised the Kashmir issue at the 15-nation Council.
India's total purchase of oil from Russia in a month is probably less than what Europe does in an afternoon, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said.
"No one has ever accused India of supporting what is going on in Ukraine. What India seems to be doing is trying to operate within the policy outlined by Nehru 65 years back," said a source.
Russia has almost completed the delivery of major components of the second regiment of the weapon systems.
Only 13 nations voted in favour of Russia's call for a secret ballot on draft resolution on Ukraine.
The countries voting in favour included France, Germany, Japan, Nepal, The United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.
India as the G20 host has a 'unique role' to play in bringing about an end to the war in Ukraine due to its 'longstanding historical' ties to Russia, the United States has said, expressing hope to work closely with New Delhi to find a way to stop the conflict.
Modi, who met Putin last week on the sidelines of the 22nd meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan's Samarkand, had told the Russian leader that "today's era is not of war".
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday conveyed to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that India stands ready to contribute in any way to the peace efforts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine
The cable was reportedly sent on March 7, a day before the Opposition submitted the no-confidence motion and requisitioned a National Assembly session for voting on it.
"I think the foreign minister of Pakistan does not know the ABC of diplomacy. He has to learn the basic elements of diplomacy i.e. courtesy and respect. You may or may not agree with the other person but you cannot leave courtesy and respect due to him," Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said.
The 193-member UN General Assembly adopted the draft resolution 'Humanitarian consequences of the aggression against Ukraine' by Ukraine and its western allies, with 140 nations voting in favour, five against and 38 abstentions. India abstained on the resolution.
External Affairs Minister Jaishankar on Wednesday described the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic as an "all consuming" challenge posed by a virulent strain of coronavirus and welcomed the enormous goodwill from countries around the world as a sense of solidarity in diplomacy.
India should engage the world on the basis of its confidence in its identity rather than trying to please the global community as their "pale imitation", External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday amid increasing Western pressure on the country to oppose the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"The letter stated that the no-confidence motion was being tabled even before it was filed, which means the Opposition was in contact with them," Khan alleged in his address to the nation.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday launched the country's first-ever national security policy, which articulates a citizen-centric framework, placing economic security at its core unlike the previous one-dimensional security policy where the focus was on the military.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has termed Russian President Vladimir Putin announcement of a special military operation in Ukraine as the "saddest moment in my tenure", while Security Council members blasted the Russian leader for the "unprovoked and unjustified' action and for delivering a "message of war".
Lavrov said a rupee-rouble payment system for trade with India was put into place earlier and it could be strengthened further.
A sidelight of the Chinese prime minister's India visit was official approval for expanding a well-functioning mechanism for regional co-operation, notes Kishan S Rana.
'We hope this round of meeting, on the basis of previous meetings, can move forward, further enlarge consensus, narrow differences and work for a solution that is acceptable to both parties,' the spokesperson said in updated comments posted on the ministry's website.
Over the past few days, the Biden administration has been reaching out to its friends and allies to support it against Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Tirumurti also said India is 'deeply concerned' about the welfare and security of the Indian community, including a large number of Indian students, in Ukraine.
They shared the dais but other than a formal handshake, there was no exchange of courtesies between prime ministers of India and Pakistan during the nearly three-hour South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Summit in Kathmandu on Wednesday.
Pakistan has taken several initiatives, including the revival of back channel diplomacy, to improve ties with India, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Thursday.
Here's the full text of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to a joint session of the United States Congress, delivered on Thursday.
India shifted gears in rejuvenating strategic ties with its major partners like the US and Russia and focused on drumming up global support for its distinct strategy in the Indo-Pacific to check Beijing's increasing muscle-flexing in the region.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron held extensive discussions on a range of bilateral and pressing global issues, including the raging conflict in Ukraine, the situation in the Indo-Pacific and terrorism, as the two top leaders agreed on a blueprint to work together in making the India-France strategic partnership a force for global good.
He said there would be progress on some issues soon while it will take time for progress on others.
He said that following a build-up of troops, multiple transgressions and attempts to unilaterally change facts on the ground by China, there have been several levels of talks and a fair amount of communication to ensure that the matter can be resolved through negotiation and diplomacy.
"We have also assisted nationals from other countries, who approached us, in their return to their respective countries. And we will remain open to doing so in the coming days."
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said complete disengagement requires re-deployment of troops by each side towards their regular posts on their respective sides of the Line of Actual Control(LAC) and this can be done only through mutually agreed actions.
Top Pentagon officials have shown an understanding of India abstaining at the UN on resolutions against the Russian aggression against Ukraine but had a hard time pacifying many US lawmakers during a Congressional hearing on the Indo-Pacific on New Delhi's repeated abstention at the world body in New York.
