Russia asserts to rely on trusted partners; EAM Jaishankar calls to fix trade imbalance

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov on Monday attended the inaugural session of "India-Russia Business Dialogue" 2023 and met representatives of Russian and Indian businesses in New Delhi  The participants present at the business forum discussed issues to further enhance Russian-Indian practical cooperation, including within the Intergovernmental Commission (IGC). 

'Moscow will rely on trusted foreign partners': Russia's DyPM Manturov

Taking to Twitter, the Russian Embassy in India informed that during the meeting the Indian business representatives got acquainted with a cluster investment platform - a new measure of support, which can be applied to joint projects. The platform also provides soft loans for the manufacturing of priority products, subsidies for pilot batches, preferences for insurance premiums and income tax, it added. 

While addressing the gathering, Manturov, who is also Russia's Minister of Industry and Trade, termed IGC a "unique mechanism" for a comprehensive discussion of topical issues on the Russian-Indian agenda. "The IGC is a unique mechanism for a comprehensive discussion of topical issues on the Russian-Indian agenda with the participation of specialised departments and organizations of the two countries. We are talking not only about trade and economic relations but also about humanitarian areas of interaction, such as education and culture," Manturov said.

Manturov, who arrived in the national capital on Monday spoke about the measures taken to strengthen Russia's "technological sovereignty". He noted that there is no goal to completely replace everything. "We will rely on trusted foreign partners. We will make every effort to expand our cooperation ties to exchange competence and experience in the most promising technological areas," he said.

Russian Embassy said in a tweet that particular importance has been attached to the issues of mutual access of products to the markets of both nations. "Together with the Eurasian Economic Commission, it is planned to intensify negotiations with India to conclude a free trade agreement." It added that an agreement on the encouragement and mutual protection of investment is being worked out.

EAM Jaishankar says 'trade imbalance should be fixed soon'

EAM Jaishankar addressed the event and stated that India and Russia have seen enhanced levels of cooperation in many areas which include the fields of energy, science & technology, and inter-regional cooperation. And they supplement what were the traditional areas of defence, nuclear and space.

There was a discussion going on to expand and diversify our bilateral trade and economic cooperation which are today yielding results. "We have crossed the bilateral trade target of USD 30 billion before the year 2025, which was the target year given to us by our leadership. And in fact, for the period April 2022 - February 2023, I understand that the trade is actually about USD 45 billion and the expectation is that this will continue to grow".

EAM raised concern about the trade imbalance and pitched for the need to work together with Russian friends in order to address that imbalance on an urgent basis.