INDIA is confident of achieving USD 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 25th session of the (IRIGC-TEC), Jaishankar said 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.