Last week, Russian deputy foreign minister Vershinin had spoken to Indian envoy to Russia Pavan Kapoor with focus on Russian presidency of the UNSC.

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergey Vershinin held talks with secretary west Reenat Sandhu on Monday in Delhi. The talks come even as Russia is set to take over the Presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) from February 1 for a period of one month.

India is also a non-permanent member of the council since January last year. MEA readout said, "Both sides agreed to deepen cooperation on issues on the UNSC agenda, keeping in view their special and privileged strategic partnership."

Last week, Russian deputy foreign minister Vershinin had spoken to Indian envoy to Russia Pavan Kapoor with focus on Russian Presidency of the UNSC. The visit assumes significance even as Moscow has kept India in the loop over the situation in Ukraine and eastern Europe and Russia-West talks on the security guarantees.

Russia has drawn red lines that Ukraine should not become a NATO member and called on West especially the United States to give security guarantees over its worries.

Last week in response to a WION question at the weekly presser of the Russian foreign ministry, deputy director of the information and press department Alexey Zaytsev said," we are informing our Indian partners on the relevant security situation in Europe and corresponding negotiations."

Russian Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov had a meeting with the Indian envoy to Russia Pavan Kapoor earlier this month.

During the meet, they "exchanged views and assessments on the events in Geneva, Brussels and Vienna on security guarantees for Russia" according to a Russian readout of the meet.

Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov had led the talks from the Russian side in Geneva where US was represented by US Deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman. Earlier, Sherman made a telephonic call to India's foreign secretary Harsh Shringla to brief him on the situation.

New Delhi has close ties with both US and Russia and has called for "peaceful resolution" of the crisis. Last week at the weekly presser, ministry of external affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, "We call for a peaceful resolution of the situation through sustained diplomatic efforts for long term peace and stability in the region and beyond."

While New Delhi closely follows the development in eastern Europe, the Indian mission in Ukraine has started to collect data on Indian nationals in the country. Around 18,000 Indian students are in the country, according to government estimates.