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MOSCOW: Russia’s President Vladimir Putin plans to travel to India in December, Putin’s aide said Friday.

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters that the Russian leader will discuss his upcoming December visit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday in China.

Putin and Modi will meet on the sidelines of the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which was established by China and Russia in 2001 with a focus on security in Central Asia and the wider region.

Putin is attending the summit and holding multiple bilateral meetings on the sidelines as part of a four-day visit to China on Aug. 31 to Sept. 3.

He also will hold extensive talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing and attend a massive military parade there commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War, according to the Kremlin.

In addition meeting with Modi, the Russian leader on Monday is also scheduled to have bilateral meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, as well as other contacts, Ushakov said.

Russian officials also were “working on the possibility of a bilateral meeting” between Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Beijing, where Kim will also be attending the parade, Ushakov added.

According to Ushakov, Putin’s meeting with Modi will be the first this year, but the two “have repeatedly maintained contact by telephone.”

Modi traveled to Russia last year twice — first to Moscow for talks with Putin in July, his first trip to Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Kremlin’s forces in 2022, and then to Kazan in October for the summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies.

Russia had strong ties with India during the Cold War, and New Delhi’s importance as a key trading partner with Moscow has grown since the war in Ukraine.

Modi has avoided condemning Russia while emphasizing a peaceful settlement. Their partnership has become more complicated, however, as Russia has moved closer to China amid international isolation of Moscow over Ukraine.

China and India are key buyers of Russian oil following sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies that shut most Western markets off to Russian exports.

LONDON: Humza Yousaf, the former first minister of Scotland, has issued an impassioned message following the death of a relative in Gaza.

Yousaf, the veteran Scottish National Party politician, posted a video on Thursday in which he and his wife Nadia El-Nakla described what had happened to a member of her extended family, Ahmed, who was killed while trying to find supplies for his children.

“We want to give you an update from my cousin Sally, in Gaza,” El-Nakla said in the video message. “His wife asked him not to go, and not to leave them. But he said, ‘No, I have to go this time, I have to provide food that we need, I have to provide milk for my child. I have to go. I’ll only go this one time, and I’m not going to go again.’ And actually, this was the last time he went, because they killed him.”

The couple said Ahmed was killed in the vicinity of an aid distribution center run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which is backed by Israel and the US.

Yousaf said: “Sally goes on to say, what the world needs to know is that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is like a trick to kill the largest number of Palestinians every day.

“Every day, around 100 Palestinians are killed there, trying to get food. Our men, our women, our children.”

El-Nakla said: “This is Gaza. This is a genocide, and the world is backing these facilities. Famine has been declared, yet aid is blocked while the foundation profits from their hunger.

“Food, water and medicine must be allowed in through real aid agencies, and the world must not look away.” 

The GHF has come in for significant international criticism since it began operations in Gaza. It was initially given sole responsibility to distribute aid by Israel after the UN and other groups were denied access to the Palestinian enclave.

Thousands of Palestinians have been shot and killed at the GHF’s four distribution sites since May by contractors and Israeli soldiers, while its poor logistical operations have been blamed by aid agencies for contributing to famine in Gaza. 

Earlier this month, UN experts said innocent civilians were “paying the ultimate price of the international community’s legal, political and moral failure” over the GHF’s activities.

Yousaf, who resigned as Scotland’s first minister in May 2024, has been a vocal critic of Israel’s war in Gaza since its outbreak in October 2023.

Numerous members of El-Nakla’s family, including her parents, were caught up in the invasion, and the pair have consistently raised awareness of the humanitarian situation in the enclave throughout the war.