Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is scheduled to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair, French President Jacques Chirac, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.
Vajpayee will meet the four leaders at Putin's hometown, St Petersburg. He is on the second leg of a three-nation European tour. Apart from Russia, Vajpayee has already visited Germany and will visit France. Vajpayee is among the select non-G-8 leaders invited by Chirac to attend an informal summit on June 1 in Evian, ahead of the G-8 summit on June 2 and 3.
During his meeting with Putin, Vajpayee is expected to exchange notes on Indo-Russian relations and key issues like Iraq, Afghanistan and anti-terror combat.
Vajpayee is among the 41 world leaders specially invited by Putin to attend the two-day celebrations of the 300th anniversary of Russia's former imperial capital St. Petersburg. It was earlier known as Petrograd and then as Leningrad.
