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Both leaders travelled from the tarmac in the back seat of a white Toyota Fortuner car, registration number MH01EN5795, part of the PM’s security entourage
It is not common for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to receive a foreign dignitary at the airport, and it is even rarer for him to travel with the foreign leader in the same car from the airport.
Both these exceptions occurred on Thursday when Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived at Palam Airport in Delhi. In an unexpected gesture, the PM reached the airport to receive Putin. The Kremlin stated that Modi’s decision to meet Putin at the aircraft ramp “was unexpected, and the Russian side had not been informed in advance." PM Modi has previously received leaders like Barack Obama, the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, Sheikh Hasina, and UAE President Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the airport.
However, with Putin, there was another surprise. Both leaders travelled from the tarmac in the back seat of a white Toyota Fortuner car, registration number MH01EN5795, part of the PM’s security entourage. The car displayed the flags of both India and Russia. Typically, the PM travels in a black Range Rover Sentinel, but on this occasion, they did not use that car. The two leaders conversed inside the white car en route to 7, LKM.
This reception adds Putin’s name to a select list of global figures—including Barack Obama (2015), Sheikh Hasina (2017), Abe Shinzo (2017), Crown Prince Salman (2019), Donald Trump (2020), Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (2024), and Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (2025)—whom PM Modi has greeted directly at the airport. However, the optics of the Russian President’s arrival went a significant step further, setting a new precedent in the choreography of bilateral summits. While PM Modi has previously shared a car with three other visiting dignitaries—Shinzo Abe (during a 2017 roadshow), Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (during a 2024 roadshow), and also Putin earlier this year (in Tianjin, China, following an SCO summit)—the move marks the first instance where the Indian Prime Minister has travelled with a visiting leader directly from the airport to the residence in India.
Putin usually travels in an Aurus Senat, which the Russian authorities had flown to Delhi. Modi had shared a ride with Putin in that car in China, and Putin’s gesture to now travel in the PM’s security car could be seen as a reciprocal gesture.
The Aurus Senat is a luxury armoured limousine built by Russian automaker Aurus Motors. It is Russia’s official state limousine, used by Putin for domestic and international travel. The limousine is heavily armoured for high security and offers luxury and comfort, including a plush interior, space for dignitaries, communications gear, and protective features.
Modi and Putin had spent over an hour inside this car while in China at the SCO summit.
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