Prime Minister Narendra Modi (R) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (PTI photo)
New Delhi: India and Russia on Friday vowed to scale up bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2030, with PM Narendra Modi saying the target could be ach-ieved “well ahead of schedule”.“Considering the tremendous potential in our partnership, I am confident that we will achieve this target well ahead of schedule. We are making rapid progress towards this goal,” Modi said, recalling the target of $100 billion that he and President Vladimir Putin had set last year. The two leaders were speaking at the India-Russia Business Forum.Modi said India and Russia could jointly drive growth in the Global South with India’s leadership in affordable EVs, two-wheelers and CNG mobility and Russia’s strength in advanced materials, and could collaborate in vaccine development, cancer therapy and automotive components.The PM said both countries were “actively working” towards the early conclusion of the Free Trade Agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union – comprising Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.Putin said Moscow wanted to deepen cooperation across security, economy, trade and culture. “What we want is the development of our multi-faceted relations with India in various fields,” he said. Russian companies, he added, were ready to “increase manifold” their purchases of Indian goods and services.He stressed that free trade would require resilient payment systems and insurance mechanisms, an issue that has complicated settlements since financial sanctions on Russia. Putin said Russia was looking to expand energy cooperation with India and ready to ensure uninterrupted fuel shipments. Moscow, he said, was open to joint work on small modular reactors and even floating nuclear power plants. He also wanted to enhance industrial cooperation with a focus on new technologies such as AI.The first round of talks on FTA between India and the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union began last week. India wants to increase the composition of products in its trade basket with Russia as India exported goods worth $4.9 billion to Russia in 2024-25, while importing goods worth $63.8 billion, primarily crude oil and petroleum products, with a trade imbalance of $59 billion.
