India, Russia look to stimulate economic ties
India and Russia are set to stimulate their bilateral trade and economic relation with the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s scheduled visit to Moscow later this month.
Swaraj will visit Moscow, Russia on April 18 to represent India in the 14th meeting of the Russia-India-China Initiative (RIC), where foreign ministers of the three countries will exchange talks and coordinate on issues of mutual significance.
During her visit, Swaraj will also hold a bilateral meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Dmitryi Olegovich Rogozin, also the Co-chair of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation, to discuss their current bilateral relationship.
“During the visit, EAM would also be having a bilateral meeting with Dmitry Rogozin, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, to take stock of the developments and strengthen this important aspect of the bilateral relationship,” official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Vikas Swarup said in a weekly press briefing on Thursday.
India’s trade with Russia, its decades-long strategic partner, has nowhere been close to their potential as the two nations continue to engage other major economies for meeting their trade goals. India’s trade with other major economies such as the US and the EU has floated around $100 billion, however its bilateral trade with Russia has barely managed to cross $10 billion mark, registering just $9.51 billion in 2014-15.
In December last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with 19 CEOs from India’s various companies, had embarked on a visit to Russia to take part in summit-level talks. The two countries, then, went to sign 16 key agreements to bolster their engagements in aircraft building, diamond, energy, heavy engineering, hydrocarbons, innovation, pharmaceuticals, railways, technology and solar energy sectors, besides exploring other potential areas of cooperation.
The two leaders had reiterated their commitment to achieve bilateral trade target of $30 billion by 2025, set earlier in December 2014.
India’s exports to Russia includes products such as apparels, coffee, iron & steel, pharmaceuticals and tobacco, while its imports consists of electrical machinery, fertilisers, defence and nuclear power equipment, and steels and diamonds.
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