Nirmala Sitharaman held talks with Russian counterpart Anton Siluanov on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Brazil

New Delhi's strategic partnership with Moscow remains "resilient and steadfast," Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Sunday. The minister's comments came after a meeting with her Russian counterpart, Anton Siluanov on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro.

"The Union Finance Minister observed that India and Russia enjoy exemplary levels of mutual trust and understanding and our Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership remains resilient and steadfast," the Indian Finance Ministry said in a post on X.

During the talks with Siluanov in Rio, Sitharaman also expressed gratitude for the support extended by Russian President Vladimir Putin to India after the April terror attack in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir that claimed 26 lives. 

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Sitharaman also congratulated Russia for its successful chairmanship of BRICS in 2024 and said that India would continue to leverage the multilateral platform to build South-South cooperation in areas of common interest. The finance ministers discussed modalities of various initiatives recently taken up by BRICS members, Sitharaman said in her post on X. 

The two sides also reviewed cooperation in the financial sector, along with matters related to the New Development Bank (NDB). The NDB was founded by BRICS in 2015 to address the needs of developing countries that, according to its members, are not equally represented in the international financial architecture. The Rio BRICS summit concluded with a joint declaration that criticized unilateral tariff actions and condemned "indiscriminate" trade measures, without directly mentioning the United States.

A few hours later, US President Donald Trump threatened to impose an additional 10% tariff on any country which "aligns itself" with BRICS, accusing the grouping of adopting "anti-American policies." New Delhi's long-standing ties with Moscow have irked Washington. In June, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said India's relations with Russia are a point of contention in its relationship with the US.