Russian Secretary of the Security Council General Nikolay Patrushev and NSA Ajit Doval

New Delhi: Russian Secretary of the Security Council General Nikolay Patrushev is visiting India for high-level Inter-Governmental Consultations on Afghanistan, the Ministry of External Affairs said.

Patrushev is expected to call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

"At the invitation of National Security Adviser Ajit K. Doval, KC, the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, General Nikolay Patrushev is visiting India for High-Level India-Russia Inter-Governmental Consultations on Afghanistan from 7-8 September 2021," the MEA said in a statement.

The ministry said that these consultations are a follow-up to the telephone conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 24.

The two leaders had expressed the view that it was important for the two strategic partners to work together and instructed their senior officials to remain in touch on Afghanistan.

They decided to form a permanent bilateral channel for consultations on Afghanistan and Afghan-based terror.

Afghanistan has plunged into crisis after the Taliban took control of Kabul on August 15.