Faced with US president Trump's fury over energy imports from Russia, India welcomed the announcement about his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Aug 15, saying it stood ready to back these efforts to end the conflict.

Russia and India stressed their commitment to a "strategic partnership" in bilateral security talks in Moscow on Thursday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump announced higher tariffs on imports from India because of its purchases of Russian oil.

Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton has warned that punitive tariffs imposed on India could backfire strategically, pushing New Delhi closer to Russia and China, the very outcome decades of American diplomacy have sought to avoid.