Russia, India Working On Addressing Trade Imbalance, While Wanting To Boost Bilateral Trade To US$100 Billion

In a push to deepen India-Russia ties, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov and India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will co-chair the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical, and Cultural Cooperation (IGC-TEC) meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday (November 12) in an event announced by the Russian embassy. The two sides will focus on expanding bilateral trade, economic ventures, and scientific cooperation between them.

Before the New Delhi meetings, Manturov also attended the India-Russia Business Forum in Mumbai on Monday (November 11), which featured sessions on industrial cooperation, finance, digital technologies, and logistics. The forum, organized by the Business Council for Cooperation with India and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), is part of a broader agenda to bolster cooperation between Indian and Russian entrepreneurs.

The IGC-TEC, established in 1992, serves as the primary platform overseeing India-Russia bilateral economic cooperation. This commission tracks progress in areas such as trade, investment, and cultural exchanges. Discussions on November 12 are expected to cover significant topics, including improving bilateral payment mechanisms, expanding trade settlements in national currencies, and advancing a joint venture with Russia’s Transmashholding (TMH) to build Vande Bharat trains. Connectivity and strategic economic initiatives are also on the agenda, according to officials familiar with the matter. We previously discussed this subject here.

Working groups within IGC-TEC handle economic, scientific, and financial issues, providing a robust structure for collaboration. Areas under their purview include civil aviation, energy, mining, tourism, IT, and banking. As India and Russia strive to achieve their ambitious trade target of US$100 billion by 2030, the IGC-TEC meeting will address the imbalance in current trade, where India’s exports stand at just under US$5 billion against the total trade volume of US$65.7 billion recorded for the Indian fiscal year. Getting Indian MNCs involved with Russia remains an uphill task as many are overly conservative when it comes to overseas investments.