MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on an official visit to Moscow, has described his being awarded Russia’s Order of St. Andrew the Apostle the First-Called as a show of mutual trust and friendship between the two countries.

"I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for the honor I have been given," he said at the awarding ceremony. "This order is not mine alone. This is an honor that is shared by the 1.4 billion people in India. This is a token of centuries-long friendship and mutual trust between India and Russia."

"This is also a token of our especially privileged strategic partnership," he stressed.