Need to tap full potential of trade & investment ties: Jaishankar to Russia
On a two-day visit to Moscow at a time when India faces 50 per cent tariffs from the Trump administration, including 25 per cent for importing Russian oil, Jaishankar said, 'We should not get stuck on a beaten track. Doing more and doing differently should be our mantras.'
He will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Thursday. Russian officials have indicated that they will develop a 'special mechanism' to deal with the current situation.
Jaishankar underlined the need for 'addressing tariff and non-tariff trade barriers, removing bottlenecks in logistics, promoting connectivity through the International North-South Transport Corridor, the Northern Sea Route and the Chennai-Vladivostok Corridor, effecting payment mechanisms smoothly, timely finalisation and execution of the Programme of Economic Cooperation till 2030, the early conclusion of the India-Eurasian Economic Union FTA, whose terms of reference were finalised today'.
'They will not only help to address the imbalance and grow our trade, but also hasten the timely achievement of our revised trade target of USD 100 billion by 2030,' he said while addressing the 26th Session of the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission for Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological, and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC).
'We are meeting here after about 10 months since the last session in November 2024 in New Delhi, and I think this is perhaps the shortest interval between the two sessions that we have ever had,' he said.
'We are all acutely aware that we are meeting in the backdrop of a complex geopolitical situation. Our leaders remain closely and regularly engaged. They provide us wise and practical guidance to our Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership. They had two 'in-person' meetings last year and are personally committed to further advancing our strategic partnership,' he said, referring to the two phone calls between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin this month. The two leaders had discussed Putin's meeting with Trump in Alaska.
While talking about the growing trade, Jaishankar also addressed the issue of the trade deficit.
'Over the last four years, our bilateral trade in goods has increased, as you have noted, more than five-fold from USD 13 billion in 2021 to USD 68 billion in 2024-25 and it continues to grow. However, a major trade imbalance has accompanied the growth; it has increased from USD 6.6 billion to USD 58.9 billion which is about nine times. So we need to address that urgently,' he said.
After meeting Manturov, he said, 'We had detailed discussions on our cooperation in a wide-ranging arena including trade and economic sector, agriculture, energy, industries, skilling, mobility, education and culture.'
Modi and Putin are likely to meet on the sidelines of the SCO leaders' summit in China's Tianjin on August 31 and September 1.
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