"We are naming a road in Delhi after the late Ambassador Alexander Kadakin. He was a great friend of India," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in St Petersburg while issuing a joint statement with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kadakin, a fluent Hindi-speaking career diplomat, passed away on January 26 at a hospital in New Delhi after a brief illness.

Kadakin, 67, who served as Russia's Ambassador to New Delhi from 2009 to 2017, was credited with playing a significant role in promotion of relations between the two countries.