NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India and Russia on Tuesday agreed to address trade deficit and market access issues, the Indian foreign ministry said, as New Delhi seeks to narrow trade imbalance after a more than four-fold rise in imports from Russia since the war in Ukraine.
The two nations are discussing a free trade agreement, the Russian trade minister said in New Delhi on Monday, a move that marks a step-up in commercial ties between India and its dominant weapons supplier.
India has not explicitly condemned Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine – which Moscow calls a “special military operation” – and has called for a peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue.
India imported goods, mainly oil, from Russia worth $51.3 billion from Feb. 24-April 5, compared with 10.6 billion in the same period in the previous fiscal year, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Russian Trade and Industry Minister Denis Manturov met India’s foreign and finance ministers on Tuesday, the second day of his two day visit to the country that came a little over a week after Ukrainian deputy foreign minister’s visit.
In the meeting with the Indian foreign minister, the two sides “discussed cooperation in the areas of trade, finance, industry, energy sector, including nuclear power, agriculture, transport, healthcare, education and culture,” the Russian embassy wrote on Twitter.
Reuters reported in November that Russia was potentially seeking to import more than 500 products from India for key sectors including cars, aircraft and trains, given that Western sanctions have undermined its ability to keep core industries operating.
India said in December that it shared a list of Indian products with Moscow for access to Russian markets.
(Reporting by Shivam Patel; Additional reporting by Aftab Ahmed, editing by Ed Osmond)
