India confident to hit $100-billion trade with Russia before 2030 : Jaishankar

NEW DELHI : External Affairs Minister Dr.S. Jaishankar said on Tuesday that India is confident of reaching USD 100 billion in annual bilateral trade with Russia well before the 2030 target, highlighting the growing relationship between the two countries holds larger global implications.

He said that while there have been challenges in trade, especially regarding payments and logistics, noticeable progress has been made, though some work remains.

The two sides have seen “perceptible progress” in tackling challenges to trade, especially issues related to payments and logistics, but there is “still some work to be done”, Jaishankar said while co-chairing a meeting of the main body that oversees bilateral trade and technical cooperation with Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov.

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

Jaishankar’s remarks built on his comments at the India-Russia Business Forum in Mumbai on Monday about the need to address the imbalance in bilateral trade. India has run up a trade deficit of almost $57 billion with Russia, largely due to massive purchases of Russian crude since 2022. In July, the two sides set a target of ramping up trade to $100 billion by 2030.

Jaishankar in a televised remark, 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 USD 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.

The external affairs ministry said in a statement that Jaishankar and Manturov directed 14 working groups and six sub-groups under the IGC-TEC to speedily finalise the programme for economic cooperation till 2030 and to take steps to enhance market access to achieve the trade target of $100 billion.

Among the issues discussed at the meeting were cooperation in trade, investments, hydrocarbons, nuclear energy, connectivity, agriculture, science and technology, IT, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, fertilisers and education.