Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to India, which was expected around October-end, has been deferred to December 24.
The external affairs ministry on Monday tersely announced that Putin will pay an official visit to India on December 24 for the 13th annual India-Russia summit.
It is very unusual for the ministry to announce the date of visiting heads of state and government over two months ahead of the visit.
Although no official announcement of Putin's visit was made by either side earlier, it was clear during the visit of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to India a week ago that Putin would hold the annual summit with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh November 1.
Officially, no reason was ascribed for the delay.