NEW DELHI: With its relationship with the West in crisis due to the Ukraine conflict, Russia is looking to expand economic links with India.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov during his April 17-18 visit to New Delhi held meetings with India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Manturov and Jaishankar on Tuesday attended the 24th meeting of the Russia-India Intergovernmental Commission (IGC) and discussed cooperation in the areas of trade, finance, industry, energy, nuclear power, agriculture, transport, healthcare, education and culture, the Russian Embassy said.
Russia-India trade last year increased by 2.6 times to exceed US$35 billion, Manturov said.
“We have completed ahead of schedule the task set by the leaders of our countries to reach level of bilateral trade of US$30 billion by 2025,” he said.
With Western sanctions hitting vital Russian sectors such as oil and gas, banking and technology, Russia is boosting cooperation with key countries in Asia.
India’s energy imports from Russia are fuelling trade growth since the Russia-Ukraine conflict escalated in February last year.
Speaking at a business forum on Monday, Jaishankar said the value of bilateral trade between April 2022 and February 2023 was US$45 billion and “the expectation is that this will continue to grow”.
The Indian foreign minister said the Russia-India friendship “has been among the steadiest of the major relationships of the world in the contemporary era” and could be broadened in line with Russia’s focus on Asia.
“We share a commitment to a multi-polar world. And that also means a multi-polar Asia,” he said.
“Russia is today looking much more towards Asia, a reassessment from its traditional focus. For India, this could mean a broadening out of our engagement that was overly reliant on the triad of military, nuclear and space cooperation,” Jaishankar.
India hopes to renew its efforts, disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, to have a free trade agreement (FTA) with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), which comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.
“I would very much hope that our colleagues will pick up on this,” Jaishankar said.
The minister said Russia and India were also in advanced negotiations to have a new bilateral investment treaty.
India is also keen to have Russian involvement in expanding its manufacturing sector.
“Russia is known for its technology strengths; and India today is focussing on production scaling and product distribution. So, even our traditional areas in fact could benefit from this, but clearly there are third country market implications here, which our companies should be looking at,” Jaishankar said.
Manturov’s talks in India also included increasing the use of national currencies in bilateral trade. – BERNAMA
