‘India to achieve $100 billion trade volume with Russia ahead of 2030’

New Delhi: India is confident of achieving $100 billion in annual bilateral trade with Russia well ahead of the timeline of 2030 and a more substantive relationship between the two nations has a larger global resonance, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on

Tuesday.

There have been challenges to trade, especially with regard to payments and logistics and perceptible progress has been made in that regard, but there is still some work to be done, he said.

The external affairs minister was speaking at the 25th India-Russia Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC).

The Russian delegation at the meeting was led by First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov.

In his televised opening remarks at the meeting, Jaishankar said that the trade between the two countries needs to be “more balanced and that would require addressing current constraints and undertaking greater facilitative efforts.”

“As two major nations in an increasingly multipolar world, a more substantive relationship between us has a larger resonance,” he said.

The external affairs minister said New Delhi welcomes and fully reciprocates Moscow’s growing interest in exploring economic opportunities in India.

“Our economies are not only complementary in many respects but benefit from the trust and confidence built over many years. The growth in bilateral trade is now estimated at $66 billion and it is impressive,” he said.

“Our goal is that it needs to be more balanced and that would require addressing current constraints and undertaking greater facilitative efforts. Making it easier to do trade should be accompanied by progress in the negotiations on the India-Eurasian Economic Union FTA,” he said.

Jaishankar said India has noted Russia’s growing interest in the Make in India programme and it would encourage joint ventures and other forms of collaboration between the two sides.

“I am confident that we will achieve the trade target of US dollars 100 billion by 2030, well before that,” he said.

The external affairs minister also highlighted India’s impressive growth rate in the last few decades.

“India that has many decades of 8 per cent growth at least ahead of it obviously values a reliable partner when it comes to resources, technology and best practices,” he said.

Jaishankar also touched upon Russia’s supply of fertilizers, crude oil and coal to India.

“Russia has emerged as a major source of fertilizers for us. Its supply of crude oil, coal and uranium are indeed important. Similarly, India’s pharmaceutical industry has emerged as an affordable and reliable source for Russia.”

“Looking ahead we are also exploring the mobility of talent, skills, customising them for the Russian market has to be a shared enterprise,” he said.