Modi in Moscow: defence, nuclear, trade high on agenda
During the 15th Annual India-Russia summit in New Delhi in December 2014, the two leaders had adopted vision document called Druzhba-Dosti to strengthen Indian-Russian partnership over the next decadePrime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a two-day visit to Russia for the 16th annual summit with President Vladimir Putin that will be aimed at expanding their agreements in a broad range of fields, especially nuclear energy, defence and hydrocarbon. This will be the Prime Minister’s second visit to Russia during the current year. He had earlier visited Russian city of Ufa to take part in the SCO and BRICS Summits. “We expect to sign a number of agreements covering a broad range of fields. Final touches are being given to some of them. At the last summit, both leaders had given a lot of attention to expanding the economic pillars of our relationship. And this would continue to be a big theme at this summit as well,” Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said. India’s current trade with Russia is close to $10 billion. The two neighbours have expedited efforts to escalate it up to $30 billion by 2025. Currently, bilateral investments are about $11billion, with India looking to increase it up to $30 billion by 2025. So far India and Russia have traded mainly hydrocarbons, nuclear energy, defense equipment, fertilizers and rough diamonds. Modi and Putin would also be interacting with a group of Indian and the Russian CEO, and pursue them to step up their economies engagements in the other countries. During the 15th Annual India-Russia summit in New Delhi in December 2014, the two leaders had adopted vision document called Druzhba-Dosti to strengthen Indian-Russian partnership over the next decade. The Foreign Secretary said India was expecting a deeper engagement in Russia's oil and coal sectors besides enhancing cooperation in other key sectors such as diamond trade and agro-business.
December 23, 2015 | 02:35pm IST
to success.