Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday assured India of provides of power and fertilisers amid disruptions brought on by the West Asia battle, whilst exterior affairs minister S Jaishankar highlighted the necessity to deal with the rising imbalance in two-way commerce that has soared to $50 billion.
Putin’s anticipated conferences with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Kyrgyzstan this month and on the sidelines of the Brics Summit in New Delhi in September figured in a gathering between the Russian chief and Jaishankar in Moscow. Jaishankar is in Russia to co-chair a gathering of the Inter-Governmental Fee on Commerce, Financial, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC).
Putin identified that bilateral commerce has elevated this yr, after declining barely in 2025, and stated Russia is growing fertiliser provides to India. He famous that any necessary points had figured within the IRIGC-TEC assembly and stated: “One among these points shouldn’t be solely power – it’s, after all, the provision of fertilisers…We’re doing every little thing to resolve this challenge for Indian farmers, for agriculture. We’re growing these provides and are prepared to take action additional.”
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The 2 sides are additionally making progress on cooperation in nuclear power and high-tech, Putin stated.
Jaishankar stated Modi hopes Putin will attend the Brics Summit in New Delhi on September 12-13. “Prime Minister Modi appears to be like ahead to assembly you on the SCO Summit and in addition hopes that you should have the chance to return to the Brics Summit and host this annual summit,” Jaishankar was quoted as saying by state-run TASS information company.
He additionally handed over a private message from Modi to Putin. Individuals conversant in the matter stated Putin is anticipated to attend the Brics Summit, together with Chinese language President Xi Jinping and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. The summit is anticipated to deal with world financial and political challenges, and increasing multilateral cooperation amongst Brics member states.
Whereas co-chairing the IRIGC-TEC assembly with Russia’s first deputy prime minister Denis Manturov, Jaishankar identified {that a} greater than four-fold enhance in bilateral commerce in items — from $13 billion in 2021-22 to almost $60 billion in 2025-26 — had been “accompanied by a big widening of the commerce imbalance” from $6.6 billion to greater than $50 billion.
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“Addressing this imbalance is at the moment one in every of our foremost priorities. Progress on market entry, elimination of tariff and non-tariff boundaries, strengthening fee mechanisms and stronger business-to-business engagement will likely be important for addressing this imbalance and attaining our shared goal of $100 billion in bilateral commerce by 2030,” Jaishankar stated at first of the assembly.
Jaishankar made three proposals for the following section of the India-Russia financial partnership – specializing in implementation and outcomes to prioritise deliverables and fixing issues, strengthening engagement with companies by aligning institutional mechanisms with business priorities, figuring out bottlenecks and enhancing coverage responses, and exploring new prospects to handle the wants of de-risking and diversifying.
The discussions between Jaishankar and Manturov additionally encompassed cooperation in commerce, investments, power, fertilisers, nuclear power, connectivity, expertise, house and mobility of pros. The 2 sides additionally reviewed the progress in discussions between India and the Eurasian Financial Union on a free commerce settlement.
Manturov stated Rosatom’s involvement in constructing the Kudankulam nuclear energy plant in Tamil Nadu may very well be the premise for increasing cooperation in nuclear power, together with the “creation of recent energy technology services in India, together with small-scale ones, in addition to the localisation of apparatus and nuclear gas manufacturing”.
Russia additionally sees potential for brand new joint tasks within the extraction and processing of non-ferrous and uncommon earth metals, Manturov stated. Russia and India are additionally discussing cooperation in house exploration, together with manned spaceflight, rocket propulsion and satellite tv for pc navigation, he stated.
The prototype of a high-speed electrical prepare collectively produced by India and Russia will likely be assembled by the top of the yr, after which serial manufacturing is anticipated to start, Manturov introduced on the assembly. “Inside this framework, the flagship mission in transport engineering — the event and manufacturing of the Vande Bharat electrical trains — is systematically creating,” he stated.
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In March 2023, a consortium led by Russia’s Transmashholding received a $6.5-billion tender for the event, manufacturing and 35-year service of 1,920 Vande Bharat electrical prepare vehicles.
Manturov additionally prioritised cooperation in power safety, together with the provision of oil, petroleum merchandise and coal, in addition to joint funding tasks in hydrocarbon manufacturing and processing. Russia is at present among the many high two suppliers of power to India.
Russian power minister Sergei Tsivilev described India as a key accomplice for the nation’s gas and power sector, whereas deputy prime minister Alexander Novak famous that Moscow is considering Indian investments within the Russian oil and fuel sector, and creating a distribution community involving Russian firms in India.
Manturov additionally famous that vacationer flows between Russia and India had elevated by 8% within the first half of 2026, with greater than 25,000 Indian vacationers visiting Russia. Round 50,000 Russians additionally visited India, he stated. Referring to labour migration, he stated Russia and India are specializing in increasing the authorized framework to create secure and clear situations for attracting staff.
The variety of Indian college students in Russia has additionally grown to virtually 40,000, Manturov stated. Help for proficient youngsters and youth could be a new vector of cooperation between the 2 international locations, he added.
