With just one official day, November 12, available for meetings, India tried to explain its “practical difficulties” but ultimately gave in and agreed to separate talks between Singh and Russian PM Viktor Zubkov. And so Russia has agreed to call the PM’s visit on November 11-13 an “official visit.”

These are essentially issues of protocol and the categorization of a visit determines the kind of hospitality, ceremonial functions and meetings that a visiting dignitary may have in the itinerary. The two sides have been holding summit-level meetings at the level of the Prime Minister and Russian President for past seven years alternatively in Russia and India.

Russia made it clear this time that unless the two PMs meet, this would be treated as a “working visit”. This would have been the first ever downgrade in protocol between the two traditional partners given that former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s visit was, at one point, considered a state visit by Moscow.

The issue came at up at the preparatory meeting in Moscow recently where the Indian side sought to argue that the last visit by Singh in December 2005 was treated as an official visit even though it did not include separate talks with the Russian PM. The visit was a top-level exchange between Singh and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Key ministers, including the Russian Foreign Minister, made courtesy calls.

But Russia is said to have resisted these arguments despite the crammed schedule for the PM. To the extent, sources said, Russia seemed to suggest that PM must meet his Russian “counterpart”, knowing well that the PM was the head of the government and his counterpart would be Putin in Russia.

Finally, India agreed to hold a separate meeting between the two PMs in a bid to at least get it termed an “official visit”. A working visit, sources said, is a concept used by the West for visits planned suddenly without any prior invite and hence, all the ceremonial and protocol elements are kept to the minimum. This, however, is a pre-planned visit which flows from the strategic partnership between both countries.

This indifference in Russian behaviour was first felt when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov did not find the time to meet External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee when the latter visited Moscow on October 11-13 in connection with a joint commission meeting.

Two weeks later, the two leaders did hold a bilateral meeting on the margins of the India-Russia-China foreign ministers’ meeting at Harbin, China. However, there was no apology from Lavrov. Instead, sources said, there was an “air of arrogance” in the exchange with the Russian Foreign Minister just mentioning that he was aware of Mukherjee’s visit to Moscow but was busy.

In fact, the External Affairs Minister even had to face the embarrassment of a security check on his way back from Moscow. This lapse in protocol was attributed to delay in papers reaching the security officials concerned. India, however, did take up the matter officially with Russia.

While there are several explanations to the recent chill in attitude, officials still remain surprised as there is no provocation, of late, for such behaviour. Until September, the relationship looked as strong as ever with Putin being the only head of state to call up Singh on his birthday.