From enhancing food supply to providing direct flights and ensuring services in the diamond sector, the two countries have potential for economic growth
India and Russia are discussing potential co-operation in gas exploration and supplies from the Russian Arctic region, according to Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.
“Both ministers of India and Russia with energy companies in Russia are discussing what we can do particularly in the Arctic region for gas exploration and supply to India,” Goyal said. The minister also expressed hope for Russia’s larger involvement in the Indian energy sector.
“Moving forward, we look at Russia as a trusted partner in the energy field. We would like it to play a greater role in the transformation of the (Indian) energy sector towards a gas-based economy,” he said.
Goyal added that the two countries expect to sign over a dozen Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in Vladivostok in September. “When Prime Minister will visit the EEF, we will have over a dozen MoUs that are planned to be executed at that time, some of which we are discussing today and will finalise over next 20 days,” Goyal said.
India and Russia will be signing five Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) on co-operation between the South Asian nation and the Russian Far East. The minister noted that the Indian delegation’s visit to Vladivostok was “in some sense” a preparation for the forthcoming forum.
“For the EEF, we will have our Prime Minister accompanied by a very high-level delegation of government leaders and businesspersons,” Goyal said, noting that Modi’s delegation would be smaller than the one visiting Vladivostok now but more high-ranking.
According to the minister, the current visit, along with the forthcoming meetings on the EEF sidelines, will enable the two countries to “easily” achieve the target of $30 billion in bilateral trade by 2025.
Co-operation in diamond sector
India is interested in providing services in the area of training workers of the Russian diamond sector, said Goyal.
“We are also seeing certain products where we can look at skilling the Russian people for carrying out activities of production and processing, for example, the diamond industry is coming in a big way to explore the potential in the Far East. You have a lot of diamond manufacturing but the processing is not done in Russia. I am going to discuss with Russian leaders the ways we can skill their people to process diamonds,” Goyal said.
The Indian minister noted that the Russian Far East provided big opportunities in the mining sector in general, including mining cooking coal, aluminium, bauxites, copper, lithium, with the latter being of particular interest to India.
He added that not only vocational training, but also higher education exchanges were on the agenda of bilateral discussions. “I spent a lot of time with (Russian Far East) Minister Alexander Kozlov and one of the thoughts that I shared with him was that as they are expanding their education facilities on the engineering side or on the medical side, we have some very prominent and reputed educational institutions in India like the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), which can help to bring high-quality education to the area,” Goyal said.
The minister added that the Russian Far East’s ceramics, tourism, agriculture and dairy production sectors were also of particular interest to India.
Food supply
Goyal expressed his belief that Indian companies are interested in supplying food products to the Russian Far East as well as opening special processing and packaging facilities for further distribution to different parts of the country.
“There were some companies here that are looking to supply products to Vladivostok, process and package it in Russia to suit their taste and then supply it to both the Far East and other parts of Russia also. This is still under debate but it may take some time before we can really finalise it,” the Indian minister said. Basmati rice is one of the possible projects.
Direct flights
India is hoping to launch direct flights between the Russian Far East and the Indian capital to boost bilateral business co-operation. “I believe this will be a first step to have greater engagement between the two countries, particularly the Russian Far East. I am sure we can mutually work out a matter by which we can have more direct flights between the Far East, at least, to begin with, Vladivostok and New Delhi. This will give a big boost to business on both sides,” Goyal said.
However, a specific timeline for launching direct flights hasn’t been yet decided. “It is too early to put a time frame to it as it is a recent thought. But we will start the discussions and try to speed up the process,” he said.
The minister noted that the port infrastructure in the Far East needs to be upgraded so that it can take larger sea vessels. He added that facilitation of visa procedures in both countries was also on the agenda of his talks with Trutnev. “It is important to expand people-to-people and business-to-business exchange and therefore, potential trade between the two countries,” said he.
Return visit to India
The minister also touched upon a return visit to India of Russian businesspersons. “It would be a logical outcome of any such engagement because ultimately, it is partnership that will define the success of the Indian-Russian joint ventures. I am quite confident that going forward we will see more Russian businesspeople travelling to India to discuss potential opportunities together, whether it’s in Russia or in India. The more the engagement between the two countries, the more we will be able to strengthen the relationship that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi share,” said he.
The minister also did not rule further exchanges between Russian Far Eastern governors and Indian chief ministers. He noted the decades-long relationship between the two countries, stressing that India had always seen Russia as a “trusted friend.”
He said, “This will encourage more businesspeople to look at opportunities in Russia.”
Trade and economic ties
Recently, Yury Trutnev, Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District, voiced the belief that the Indian delegation’s visit to Russia’s Vladivostok would boost trade and economic ties between the countries. “Russia has always respected India, its art, culture and traditions. At the same time, our trade and economic ties are rather modest. We believe that today’s visit will turn a new page in our relations,” said Trutnev.
The officials noted that the Indian delegation showed interest in co-operation in energy, agriculture, logging, infrastructure, high-tech and IT. “I am sure that regional contacts of businesspeople and heads of regions of the countries will allow us to proceed to concrete projects in the said areas and find new ones,” he added. “I am confident that the friendship between the two countries will contribute to ensure peace and stability,” said Trutnev.
(The three-day forum will be held in Vladivostok from September 4.)
Source: Sputnik News Agency and Radio