India-Russia Aim To Reach $50 Bn In Bilateral Trade In 2023: Embassy In Moscow

India and Russia aim to reach a bilateral trade volume of USD 30 billion by 2025, Ved Prakash Singh, First Secretary and Head of the Economic and Commercial Department of the Embassy of India in Moscow said on Wednesday, according to a media report.

Addressing the India-Russia Business Forum on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Singh said, “This year, we have an opportunity to surpass that figure. In 2023, our goal is to reach a bilateral trade volume of USD 50 billion. This is historically high and a huge achievement.”

He pointed out that the two countries have the potential to develop in sectors like pharmaceuticals, chemicals and agriculture. Thus, it is possible to increase exports from India to Russia, according to the media report.

Pavel Kalmychek, director of the bilateral cooperation development department of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, highlighted the main tool that will solve a lot of structural and systemic problems in the cooperation between the countries in the economy.

“This tool is a free trade agreement. We signal this to our Indian partners. We work very closely on the platform of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) and we understand that this is the number one task in order to come to some mutually acceptable solutions,” he stressed.

Talking about the potential of the two countries in the tourism sector, Mr Kalmychek said, “We understand that our country can offer a huge number of tourist locations. And I’m sure that St. Petersburg will be popular with the citizens of India. And here too, we are ready to offer system mechanisms and tools in terms of visa facilitation.”