Jaishankar to address Indo-Russia trade conference

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov will on Monday virtually address a conference that will see experts from the two sides deliberate on navigating the choppy waters amid tension in the Gulf region.

The one-day conference organised by the Embassy of India in Moscow and the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) is especially significant considering the impact of the ongoing conflict in the Gulf region on the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).

Iran's Bandar Anzali, which faced damage due to a missile strike by US-Israel on March 18, is a major port on the corridor that is a crucial link between Mumbai and St Petersburg, bypassing the Suez Canal, to boost trade between Asia and Europe.

Both India and Russia have pinned their hopes on the corridor for boosting bilateral trade to USD 100 billion by 2030, as was agreed to by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin at their New Delhi summit in December. The conference 'Russia and India: Towards a New Agenda for Bilateral Relations' is a second attempt to chart the roadmap to enhance political, economic and cultural cooperation between the two strategic partners.

According to the schedule published by RIAC, the conference will be organised around three thematic blocks: political, economic, and cultural-humanitarian, with Government and public figures, representatives of the business and scientific communities attending the event.  Jaishankar and Lavrov will virtually address the conference at which two former ambassadors of India to Russia representing different think-tanks are expected to elaborate the Indian view on the rapidly changing situation in the world, RIAC said.

Apart from discussing the role of Russia and India in the changing global order in one of the plenaries, a session is likely to feature discussions on the role of the two countries' friends and partners, including Iran, Israel, US and other Gulf states, in the context of the ongoing war in West Asia.

Connectivity has been a bottleneck since the collapse of the Soviet Union and INSTC is expected to address this problem.