Blitz Bureau
EXTERNAL Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that India and Russia will achieve the trade target of $ 100 billion by 2030 or before. Jaishankar and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov on November 12 co-chaired the IndiaRussia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation.
In his opening remarks, Jaishankar said that there have been challenges in trade with regard to payments and logistics and that significant progress has been made in this regard but some work still remains to be done.
He said that India-Russia bilateral trade has reached $66 billion. It needs to be made more balanced and more convenient. There is a need to make it easier to do business.
Describing connectivity as an important issue, the EAM said that joint efforts should be made to enhance the International North-South Transport Corridor, Chennai-Vladivostok Corridor and the Northern Sea Route.
Referring to the important areas of mutual trade, Jaishankar said that Russia has emerged as a major source of fertilisers for India. The supply of crude oil, coal and uranium is really important. Similarly, India’s pharmaceutical industry has emerged as an affordable and reliable source for Russia. He is confident that both countries will achieve the trade target of $ 100 billion by 2030.
In his remarks, Manturov said, over the last five years, trade turnover between the countries have grown more than five-fold. He added that India is now the second country among all the foreign economic partners of Russia. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also met Manturov. The Finance Ministry said that both the leaders discussed issues of bilateral and multilateral interest and exchanged views on measures to strengthen financial as well as economic ties between India and Russia.
