Russia-India friendship has withstood test of time: Russia's Consul Gen Alexi M Idamkin

Speaking at an interactive session organised by MCCI here, Idamkin reminded the audience that Russia had stood by India during the Indo – Pak war in 1971, the Kargil conflict, and other difficult times.

"India does not want to join the current Western sanctions against Russia and the two countries continue to give a shoulder to each other," the Russian diplomat said.

India and Russia continue to strongly cooperate on defence issues with real-time communication between the two sides, he said.

In West Bengal, Russian equipment was being used for underground mining and it was in the areas of MSME that Russia was collaborating with the state.

Earlier, MCCI President Rishabh C. Kothari in his welcome address said that the trade turnover between India and Russia witnessed unprecedented growth in the first half of the fiscal year 2023 reaching over US$ 11 billion, showing a likelihood of achieving the trade goal of US$ 30 billion by 2025.

India’s shift in sourcing oil from the Middle East to Russia has given much of the impetus to trade this fiscal and Russia’s offer of supplying crude at a cheaper rate has been the prime reason for India to look at Russia. 

At present more than two-thirds of trade happens in fertilizer and hydrocarbon raw material supplies but there are more opportunities to broaden economic cooperation.

Idamkin agreed with Kothari’s view that the volume of trade between India and Russia will reach USD 30 billion by 2025.

He said the volume of trade in the first six months of the current fiscal has been worth $ 18 billion. 

Russian exports of hydrocarbons form a significant portion of bilateral trade and in fact, Russia has increased oil exports to India sixfold year-on-year this year.

Although overall bilateral trade between India and Russia was increasing, Idamkin expressed concern over the trade imbalance between the two countries.

The two countries continue to cooperate in space exploration, among other significant areas.

Idamkin also mentioned the joint ventures between the two nations in the areas of refinery, steel, and fertilizer and said that both India and Russia would not only continue with their relationship but will build upon it.

On announcing Rupee being a trade currency, the top Russian diplomat in Kolkata said that negotiations were fast progressing though he could not comment anything specific on the issue.

Both India and Russia have opened a number of Vostro accounts in their respective countries.

He said that the five countries that have formed the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) could give India a better trade opportunity with a formation of a common market, which is evolving.

The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) is an economic union of some post-Soviet states located in Eurasia. The Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union was signed on 29 May 2014 by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia, and came into force on 1 January 2015. While its other members are Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, EEU has Moldova, Cuba and Uzbekistan as its observers.

It has an integrated single market of 184 million people and a gross domestic product of nearly $US 2 trillion.