India, Russia discuss economic cooperation, facilitating mobility of talent and skills

The 25th Session of the India-Russia Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation was held here. Russia's First Deputy PM Denis Manturov also co-chaired the session.

In his opening remarks, Jaishankar expressed confidence that the bilateral trade target of USD 100 billion will be achieved before 2030.

He said India is on a high growth path and values a reliable partner when it comes to resources, technology and best practices.

"We note Russia's growing interest in the Make in India programme and would encourage joint ventures and other forms of collaboration. There have been challenges to trade in regards to payments and logistics. Perceptible progress has been made in that regard, but there is still some more work to be done," he said.

"Our joint endeavours in regard to connectivity such as the INSTC, Chennai Vladivostok corridor and the northern sea route must go forwards. Looking ahead, we are also exploring the mobility of talent and skills and customising them for the Russian market has to be a shared enterprise. I am confident that we will achieve the trade target of USD 100 billion by 2030, well before that. In parallel, we will also take our partnership forward, through the program of Economic cooperation till 2030 that we hope to finalise," he added.

He said talks with the visiting Russian leader have both a bilateral context and global setting. "As two major nations in an increasingly multi-polar world, a more substantive relationship between us has a larger resonance," he said.

Jaishankar later said the talks were "productive and wide ranging".

"Co-chaired a productive and wide ranging 25th meeting of the India-Russia Intergovernmental Commission in Delhi. Thank my co-chair First DPM Denis Manturov and our delegations for their contribution. Our deliberations covered the complimentary and beneficial economic and trade cooperation, reinforcing critical food, energy & health security and facilitating mobility of talent and skills. Confident that our deliberations today will make a strong contribution to the direction and progress of our strategic partnership," Jaishankar posted on X.

Denis Manturov said Russia is interested in expanding direct air traffic between the two countries. He also expressed Russia's commitment on signing the Free Trade Agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union and India

"We deem it especially necessary to continue our work on expanding relations between Russian and Indian banks. We're interested in expanding direct air traffic between our countries. Right now, flights are operated solely by the Russian Airlines Aeroflot, conducting 12 regular flights per week from Moscow and Yekaterinburg to Delhi and Goa. We hope to see more frequent flights development of the route network as well as the resumption of flights by Indian air carriers...We are interested in expanding complex cooperation in the nuclear field, including the successful results of realizing the project of Kudankulam NPP...We're conducting work on creating joint production of high-speed electric trains for Indian railways within the initiative Make in India," he said.

"Over the last five years, trade turnover of our country has grown more than fivefold. And India is now the second country among all the foreign economic partners of Russia. The positive tendency is maintained this year as well... Among other things, we confirm our strong commitment on signing the Free Trade Agreement between the EEU and India, as well as the bilateral agreement on services and investments. This fully meets the needs of our business community," he added. (ANI)