NEW DELHI: External affairs minister S. Jaishankar, on a visit to Moscow, has stressed the need to urgently address India’s rising trade deficit with Russia, which stood at $58.9 billion in FY24, largely due to increased crude oil imports.
Ahead of his talks with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday, Jaishankar co-chaired the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission with deputy PM Denis Manturov. He proposed measures to diversify trade ties, including removing tariff and non-tariff barriers, easing logistics, ensuring smooth payment mechanisms, and concluding the India-Eurasian Economic Union free trade pact at the earliest.
“These steps will not only help balance our trade but also enable us to achieve our revised trade target of $100 billion by 2030,” Jaishankar said. He also called for greater connectivity through the International North-South Transport Corridor, the Northern Sea Route, and the Chennai-Vladivostok maritime link.
Russia, in a statement, said the focus of talks would be on building transport, logistics, banking, and financial systems insulated from sanctions, along with expanding the use of national currencies in trade. It underlined that the partnership rests on “mutual trust and respect.”
Jaishankar will hold separate discussions with Lavrov on regional and global issues, including the Ukraine conflict. Lavrov is also expected to brief him on the recent Russia-US summit in Alaska.
